High Definiton

Troubleshooting Common HD Problems

Black or gray bars surrounding picture

When a program is transmitted in 4:3 aspect ratio and it is viewed on a 16:9 screen, the image typically will be centered on the screen with black or gray sidebars.  Note that the Suddenlink set-top does NOT change the aspect ratio of any programming. However, many HDTV sets provide the viewer with the ability to remove the black or gray sidebars (stretched, zoom, expand, narrow, etc.).  If you have a Suddenlink HD set-top and would like to use these functions on your TV set when viewing 4:3 aspect ratio programming, you will need to wire up the Video Out (component video or S-video) of the Suddenlink set-top box to a corresponding standard input on your TV.  Future versions of the HD set-top box will have the “stretched, zoom, expand, narrow, etc.” functions built into the box.