topic Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV in Archive

Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

glider+man — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 13:29:07 GMT

When using Sky Q Sky TV as the source on my TV, I can only select 16.9 or 4.3 picture aspect ratios under the sky settings menu or on my TV settings. This means that I cannot use the whole of my TV screen and is really annoying. Other sources such as Amazon or Netflix or DVD players do not do this, so I can use the TV function to select zoom or whole screen settings when viewing these. My previous Sky + box did not restrict this either. It has only been since I got Sky Q this year.

I have been into the settings menu but there is no option I can see too alter this and it is not a problem with the TV as it is ok with other sources.

If this is just a restriction in Sky Q it needs changing and wasnt a problem before with Sky+

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

nigea99 — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 13:51:48 GMT

hi @glider+man what resolution is your SKY Q box set to ?

I have just set mine to the default 1080i & can select all options on my Panasonic TV (normally I have mine set to 2160p which is a fixed aspect)

BTW your TV's native aspect is likely to 16:9 so when you select zoom you are actually cropping some of the picture

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

MightyQuinn — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:01:55 GMT

Hi @glider+man There are no aspect ratio control on any Sky platform. The restrictions you are seeing are all controlled by your TV. If you lower the Sky Q resolution to match your old Sky+HD (like really old SD programmes at 576p) then you should have the same aspect ratio control. Fiddling with the aspect ratio is really a thing from the past deliberately distorting the image unless you have a tiny TV.

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

glider+man — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:07:38 GMT

@nigea99

Thanks for the response. Mine is set to 2160. Dont really want to have to use a lower definition to get the flexibility! In fact Sky just emailed me to change it from 2160 8 bit to 2160 10bit which I have done - this has made no difference to this issue.

Yes I know zoom can crop picture but generally only an issue watching sky sport and easy to convert back.

Might have to check why 2160 is a fixed aspect!

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

MightyQuinn — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:13:24 GMT

Hi @glider+man In general 2160 is a fixed aspect ratio for all TVs. You are going to have to lower the resolution if you want to distort your image.

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

nigea99 — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:15:01 GMT

@glider+man wrote:
@nigea99
Thanks for the response. Mine is set to 2160. Dont really want to have to use a lower definition to get the flexibility! In fact Sky just emailed me to change it from 2160 8 bit to 2160 10bit which I have done - this has made no difference to this issue.

Yes I know zoom can crop picture but generally only an issue watching sky sport and easy to convert back.

Might have to check why 2160 is a fixed aspect!

2160p is UltraHD which is fixed at 16:9

unlike other streaming platforms SKY Q doesn't downscale (or any form of dynamic resolution - this i s partly to stop the screen trying to change resolutionwhen people swap between SD & HD channels)

Thus if you want to zoom in on 4:3 or other content then you will need to manually set to 1080 (or lower)

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

ozsat — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:29:02 GMT

When watching old 4:3 material on UK Gold, Talking Pictures, Forces TV etc - the image is distorted (stretched left and right) in you leave it to the SkyQ default of 2160 which is fixed at 16:9.

@MightyQuinn wrote:
Hi @glider+man In general 2160 is a fixed aspect ratio for all TVs. You are going to have to lower the resolution if you want to distort your image.

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

Chodley — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:02:47 GMT

@ozsat Is that true? I just tried it and get black bars

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

ozsat — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:45:05 GMT

Can't see you image yet but I think Forces TV have the black bars anyway so it is right on a 16:9 screen - check Talkling Pictures though if you are using 2160.

The switching works on lower resolutions.

EDIT: I see it now - that is Gold which has the borders in their picture - it is not SkyQ box or the tv doing that. You can tell by manually switching the the tv to 4:3 and seeing it got squashed.

@Chodley wrote:
@ozsat Is that true? I just tried it and get black bars

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

Chodley — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 17:38:02 GMT

@ozsat But UK Gold was one of the examples you gave?

I buy that it's UK Gold HD transmitting a 16:9 with embedded black bars. Maybe the SD channel is different?

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

Chodley — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 17:50:45 GMT

@ozsat But UK Gold was one of the examples you gave?

I buy that it's UK Gold HD transmitting a 16:9 with embedded black bars. Maybe the SD channel is different?

edit: no it's the same. So is ForcesTV.

TalkingPictures looks like they've zoomed it and included reduced vertical bars. AR looks ok but presumably cropped a bit top & bottom or it's a wider AR movie (Inspector Duval) on at the mo.

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

ozsat — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 19:04:27 GMT

It may be due to complaints that the channels are resolving the issue themselves - but Talking Pictures was still stretching left/right when I checked earlier.

VirginMedia boxes actually switch the image ratio to display it correctly even when set to 2160 mode.

@Chodley wrote:
@ozsat But UK Gold was one of the examples you gave?

I buy that it's UK Gold HD transmitting a 16:9 with embedded black bars. Maybe the SD channel is different?

edit: no it's the same. So is ForcesTV.
TalkingPictures looks like they've zoomed it and included reduced vertical bars. AR looks ok but presumably cropped a bit top & bottom or it's a wider AR movie (Inspector Duval) on at the mo.

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

glider+man — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:12:15 GMT

Thanks for all the input. I am not bothered about watching old tv in a restricted space, its more films where the picture is inconsistent.

Watching in 2160 last night there were several films on Sky movies that appeared on the TV in letterbox style ie the top and bottom black bars and not 16:9, but some thing like 17:7. Some of these films were very recent, so not just old films that were clearly not made in 4k. Therefore I dont think SKY is fixed on 16.9 ratio, only on resolution of 2160 but has restricted the ability to distort the image for all good reasons highlighted.

On my TV I can still choose between 16.9 ratio and 4.3 ratio when watching sky on 2160 so clearly not fixed at 16.9, although selecting 4.3 doesnt help!

This resolution of 2160 is only vertical pixels of UHD for a 16.9 aspect ratio. The width is 3840 pixels.

For Cinemas you can have 4k (UHD) with either 2160*3996 for flat aspect or 1716*4096 for scope aspect depending on the dimensions of the cinema. I wonder if this determines whether the films show in letterbox or that they are old.

Either way as there is no apparent solution to solve a partial problem other than to keep flicking around with the resolution I think this discussion has run its course.

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

nigea99 — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:31:45 GMT

hi @glider+man

The problem of course is that modern TVs are 16:9 ratio and older pre HD, TVs were 4:3 and whatever we do there will be material shot in other ratios and have to be adjusted in some way for the TVs

for 4:3 images on 16:9 Tvs there are 3 main options for broadcasters to use - none are perfect but have to choose one as the physical screen ratio is fixed

1) Crop the top and/or bottom of the 4:3 image

2) add black bars to the sides and preserve the full 4:3 image (as seen on the likes of UK Gold currently)

3) Stretch the image horiziontally to fill the screen - this actually distorts the image but often it is done progressively towards the edges were we tend not to notice the distortion

we used to have a similar problem, but the other way round , with many films when TV screens were 4:3 ratio - but in those cases the black bars were top & bottom & the 'cut' option would often be used but the part of the image was chosen depending on the action (Known as Pan & scan)

As you mentioned some films are still created in other aspect ratios and these are likely to be shown with the additonal black bars to fill the ratio

No solution is perfect and we all have our preferences - mine is always to show in original aspect and add black bars to the rest of the screen but I know others prefer a screen without any black bars

In the 4:3 days europe tended to prefer the black bars whereas the UK generally seemed to prefer the 'Pan & Scan' cropped version of films (as much as I wanted the black bars)

TVs tend to have less options to change the aspect ourselves when using UHD resolutons (I don;t think mine hsa any option) but the others like zoom are availble in 1080

Hope you find the best way to watch the content as you wish

Re: Sky Q restricts Aspect Ratios on my LG OLED TV

LGUser — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:54:21 GMT

@ozsat UK Gold has an HD channel so no need to change anything. As for the SD only channels that show 4:3 stretched to 16:9, it's easier to change to TV to 4:3 then to do so by changing the box resolution. At least it's easier on my LG OLED C1.