Hi-tech-tv.com: Television technology news & answers

Question: I just moved in an apartment with my fiance and I got cable installed Saturday for a Phillips 42in 1080p. The channels work fine but for some reason for the hd channels I have to manually change the width of the screen for me to have the whole screen HD. I had to do that with all the football games on Sunday. Isn’t it supposed to be automatic? This is my first Flat screen so I’m not sure…Do I need to buy another wire?

I set the settings for the actual tv for automatic but for the hd football games it came up widescreen and i had to manually expand the screen.

Answer 1: Yeah you can change the settings to automatic. You can call cablevision and they will talk you through it.

Answer 2: When setup is right, your digital cable box should read (left to right) 1080i, hdtv, auto. Time and channel should appear in a larger font below the info.

Answer 3: HDMI cables really help. What you need to do is adjust the box settings. Go into the box menu by hitting settings button on remote twice. Go to Video Input and change if from fixed to auto dvi/hdmi.

You also need to run the HD wizard on the box to set it up. To do this you turn the cable box off, and then hit the info and settings button on the box itself. The program will come up on your tv and just follow the on screen instructions.

I work for cable as a tech so this should have been done for you, but sometimes guys dont do shit the right way.

On a side note, it can also be your TV so make sure you have it on wide screen setting if avail. Also make sure you take your cable box of the stretch setting if its turned on by hitting the settings button on remote once and going to it.