My TV seem to be on wide screen and it shows half the picture, how do I set it up on full screen? No other material is connected to the TV

Why are you using 4:3 letterbox? It might be the default aspect ratio but widescreen tvs should be set to 16:9 aspect ratio.

Hi Anthony,

You're describing what is called letterbox and pillerbox. Letterboxing is when there are two horizontal bars - one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen with a wide picture between. Pillerbox is when there are two vertical bars - one on the left edge and one on the right edge of the screen with a tall picture between.

The settings on your TV (and on your cable box, satellite box, DVD player, etc.) tell the TV how to display a picture that will not fill the screen completely. If the program source (an older video-taped TV show, non-widescreen version DVD, etc) was not originally "shot" or saved in widescreen format, the TV offers you a choice on how to display the image. They ask if they should stretch or zoom to fill the screen (and you have to deal with the skinny / tall images or lost portions of the picture); or maintain the aspect ratio (not stretching or zooming) by leaving a part of the screen blank (grey or black) by inserting bars left and right or top and bottom of the screen.

Start out by telling the devices that send pictures in a format that matches you TV's screen ratio. I am assuming you've got a wide screen HDTV which would mean it should be set to "16 x 9" (a.k.a. 16:9) ratio display. If you have it set for 4 x 3 (a.k.a. 4:3) you should change it. Look for a setting on your TV that asks about stretching, zooming, etc. as this will be an issue when receiving picture from an off air antenna on your house when a TV station is airing an older, non-wide screen format TV show or movie.

TV signals provided by Cable TV or Satellite provider must be HDTV type signals. If you have the standard TV service (non-HD) no picture sent by them will ever fill the screen. This is because Standard Definition TV (SDTV) is not capable of those types of signals. You will have to bump up your subscription to HDTV service to get full screen pictures.

I hope this helps!

Hi, Turn your TV on, select the menu and see if there is something in picture settings (wide screen or full screen) Try to connect a DVD player using HDMI cable. See if there is any difference.
Some DVD players will also have screen sizing. If nothing helps contact TV repair. Good luck

Do you use a satellite dish or cable? There are 2 different ways to control picture size. One is through the TV itself but there is sometimes also a control through the dish. For DISH network it is format on the remote. You may want to check if that setting is set to zoom or a setting like that. If it is, the TV control of the picture won't change anything. Email me back with more details if this doesn't solve your problem.

just look at the owners manual of how to adjust the picture

this is normal and this feature is for wide screen programs! normal shows and games will lose part of the top of the screen sides and bottem because it zooms in on whats in the middle of screen! hope this helps

With an HDMI cable connected, the cable box determines the picture size. The settings on the cable box must be changed in order for you to get the correct picture size. I have some experience with Motorola cable boxes; usually to access the settings you turn the box OFF and then press the menu or settings button on the box to bring up the display menu. Hope this helps!

make sure your hd cable connection from your cable box is going to an hd connection to your tv.[via hdmi, dvi,or componant.] if you have a different hook up such as rca out or coax out, these are not hd connections and you are probably streching out the picture.look at the rear of the tv & cable box and see how the connections are.the hd hook up to the hd input should make the picture the right size only if it's set on the hd input channel.hook up the dvd player to a aux/line in or video/source input and try changing the picture size. you may have to play around with it till you get it the way you want.
hope this helps.
wg

I corrected mine by adjusting my cable settings. It had been set to "zoom" / "wide" mode. I reset to "normal" and now channels look fine again.

When only a half screen is produced, it is usually a upper or lower buffer board, if the top half is blank then it is the upper buffer, and of course if it's the bottom half then it's the bottom buffer board