Sceptre 32" from Costco will not display 16:9 when it should, is there a solution?

[Eeezee]

I know other people on this forum have to have purchased this TV, it's the $600 set that Costco has been selling on and off for the last couple of months.

Essentially the television will not display a 16:9 aspect ratio even if using a high definition, 16:9 source. I've tried the following

Composite playstation 2 - Only 4:3 regardless of what I'm playing
Composite 480p DVD player - Again, only 4:3
VGA cable from computer - Only 4:3 aspect ratios, for a computer I was almost certain that a 16:9 ratio should be possible
DVI-HDMI cable from computer - Again, only 4:3

I've read of people displaying 16:9 aspect ratios with upconverting DVD players outputting HDMI. I don't own one, so I haven't been able to test this.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I doing something wrong, perhaps? There is nothing in options or the manual indicating a cause for this. Also, this is my first HDTV, so my apologies if I'm just making a mistake somewhere.

 

[Peter]

Composite signals are /always/ 4:3, regardless of how much of it is filled with actual picture.

With VGA or DVI/HDMI signals, the computer is free to provide other aspect ratios. Choose a suitable resolution from your display properties window.

 

[Eeezee]

Alright, with a DVI->HDMI cable I had to customize the screen resolution to be 1216x676 when the television is sold as a 1360x768 model. Whenever I tried other resolutions, the screen became very jittery. I can now display a 16:9 ratio with the television remote, but 1216x676 is definitely not the standard resolution for this LCD. For some reason it's the only one that works, though, as all others were either horribly jittery (I don't know why?) or were too large to fit on the screen (which seems strange). For example, actually outputting 1360x768 resolution caused the computer desktop to be too large to fit on the television. Very weird.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Alright, with a DVI->HDMI cable I had to customize the screen resolution to be 1216x676 when the television is sold as a 1360x768 model. Whenever I tried other resolutions, the screen became very jittery. I can now display a 16:9 ratio with the television remote, but 1216x676 is definitely not the standard resolution for this LCD. For some reason it's the only one that works, though, as all others were either horribly jittery (I don't know why?) or were too large to fit on the screen (which seems strange). For example, actually outputting 1360x768 resolution caused the computer desktop to be too large to fit on the television. Very weird.

Sounds like a standard overscan problem.

Are you sure component (vs. composite) doesn't work for 16x9? (for the other sources)

 

[Peter]

Yup ... many HDTV units are stupid enough to apply overscan not only to received TV signal, but also to anything coming from the PC. Stupid, but short of a TV unit firmware setting or upgrade, there is no cure other than compensating for the missing margins - which is exactly what you did.

 

[Dman877]

A 720p signal wouldn't even fit?

 

[Navid]

I am facing similar problems!
7900 GTO graphics card here!

Have you been able to get a reasonable image from the PC on Sceptre as a secondary display?

 

[aka1nas]

I have that Sceptre and it's connected by VGA to my PVR with an old Geforce3 ti200. It appears to be running fine in widescren at native res without jitters. I also have a direct coaxial cable connection(I don't need a cable box for basic cable here) going into it and everything displays fine too.

 

[Navid]

VGA only fits a part of the desktop on the Sceptre screen. As I move the cursor closer to the edges, the view pans on Sceptre. But, I cannot get it to show the entire desktop at once even though the resolution automatically selected for the secondary display is 1360X768.

 

[aka1nas]

That's not the case on my setup. I get the entire screen on the panel at native res.

 

[RossMAN]

I haven't connected my Sceptre to the PC yet.

 

[fustercluck]

Interesting. It sounds like maybe Eeezee's sceptre might have problems that other people don't have. Maybe there are different versions of this TV out there? Eeezee is obviously savvy when it comes to this kinda stuff, so It doesn't seem like the fault would be on his side.

Gonna check this thread later for more replies.