screen ratio on Freeview co-ax feed from STB

[bandsp]

I have sky feeding the Aux scart on my TiVo and a freeview STB feeding via the co-ax.

The freeview is always 4:3 ratio .. it has a scart output I have connected to the TiVo VCR scart and this gives a 16:9 ratio but of course I can't record from the VCR scart connection (That is right, isn't it?)

I have tried fiddling with the STB settings, but can't change the analogue output ratio that TiVo sees.

Is the 4:3 ratio a 'given' with the co-ax feed, or would a different STB give a 16:9 ratio, or is there a tweek to TiVo (I have not tried the analogue co-ax direct to the TV .. it's a nelluvajob to dismantle my 'media centre' to get at it)

Thanks for up-putting with me

[DX30]

I have sky feeding the Aux scart on my TiVo and a freeview STB feeding via the co-ax.

The freeview is always 4:3 ratio .. it has a scart output I have connected to the TiVo VCR scart and this gives a 16:9 ratio but of course I can't record from the VCR scart connection (That is right, isn't it?)

Yes

I have tried fiddling with the STB settings, but can't change the analogue output ratio that TiVo sees.

Is the 4:3 ratio a 'given' with the co-ax feed, or would a different STB give a 16:9 ratio, or is there a tweek to TiVo (I have not tried the analogue co-ax direct to the TV .. it's a nelluvajob to dismantle my 'media centre' to get at it)

The co-ax RF signal can carry WSS (Wide Screen Switching) required for 16:9 by a mechanism known as Line 23 switching. The aspect ratio information gets embedded on Line 23 of the PAL signal, a technique that dates back to the days of VCR's.

The problem is support for Line 23 WSS is rare on freeview stbs. It's also rare to find an stb with an RF modulator. Even if you can find an stb with both it may not work well with a TiVo.

I did run a similar Sky+Freeview setup a few years back and couldn't find such an stb so I just ran the Freeview stb in letterbox mode and let the TV letterbox detection do its thing.

Caveat - Since I don't have a suitable stb I've never actually verified Line 23 WSS on the TiVo RF input is supported. I have tried Line 23 WSS successfully using a 3 wire composite input feed via the TiVo scart (no pin 8 switching) so I'm assuming therefore it is highly likely that it will work on the RF input too, but no guarantees.

Maybe someone else knows of a suitable Freeview stb? Or perhaps you could use an external RF modulator with one that does Line 23 WSS?

[bandsp]

OK, thanks for that gen..

I carry on as it is .. It's not a major problem .. I've been using it like this for a while