Is There a Way to Turn the Light Bands to Black? (1 Viewer)

[i_am_jim]

I understand the light bands/borders ( See example: http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/6...tbordersp8.jpg) on the left and right of SD (4/3) images are intended to minimize imprints/burn-in on the screen.

But, I find them very distracting and from what I read LCD screens don't have much of a burn-in problem anyway.

My question is, is there a way on Samsung TVs to make those bands black?
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Samsung LN46A550

 

[Geo Gabor]

Several years ago I had a Toshiba 16:9 TV that did the same thing. It was very distracting. So I asked my Mom to make two red borders that I could velcro onto the sides of the TV; I can't remember what kind of fabric she used, but she made them so that they looked like curtains in a theater. They were thick enough to block the annoying grey light, and when I watched a widescreen movie I just unvelcroed them. Pretty nifty!

 

[Zack Gibbs]

I didn't worry about the black bars either with my first LCD and it absolutely has burn in. Now I make sure to use the gray boarders supplied by my DVR.

 

[i_am_jim]

I'm certainly no authority on this but from what I've read:

1 LCDs are fairly resistant to burn-in;
2 most burn-ins will go away after a period of time when the cause is removed;
3 there are treatments you can do to help remove them, such as creating an all white JPEG you display for a while to equalize the pixels.

Again, all this may be misinformation, but I'd like the opportunity to learn for myself or find an authoritative article on the problem.

 

[i_am_jim]

Oh yes, I intended to mention. Sometimes the borders/bands are dark -- see example, http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8...kborderlv2.jpg

Other times they're light like the illustration in my original post.

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Samsung LN46A550

 

[Scott Merryfield]

When you get the black bars, what is your source signal? If it's a HD broadcast signal, then those bars are being generated at the source by the TV network, not by your TV set.

The TV set will only generate side black/gray bars with standard definition signals, either via a standard def TV broadcast or standard DVD.

 

[i_am_jim]

Wow, what an amazing array of different arrangements and appearances/formats.

It's been a few days since I made that picture but it could well have been an HD cable channel, who apparently aren't worried about burn-in.

Thanks

 

[MarkHastings]

I record The Simpsons in HD everytime it's on the Fox HD channel and I can tell you that everytime they run a syndicated episode (like during the day), they use the light grey bars on the sides. But when they show it during it's actual time slot (i.e. Sunday nights), they show it with the black bars.

I guess they are concerned about burn-in and don't care that the syndicated stuff is being presented with those nasty grey bars. It's very annoying, especially when I'm half falling asleep and trying to watch TV in the dark (at night) and those bars brighten up my room.

 

[David Deeb]

Have no idea about the Samsung, but I suspect it does. Both of my Panasonic plasmas have settings to change that area. From the standard white, or light black or a dark black which is what I use. It probably defaults to the white, but that is simple distracting and I'm not sure why anyone would choose that. I would check with your owners manual.

 

[i_am_jim]

I'm not saying it's not in the manual, as it's fairly thick and I haven't read every word. But, I've looked for it and haven't found anything about changing these bars. That's why I posted the question here.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

You may be looking in the wrong manual. Check the book (or the menus) for your HD cable box or DVR. I have a Scientific Atlanta DVR from Comcast and it is the DVR that determines the color of the pillarbox bars on material that is transmitted as a native 4:3 signal. (Because the entire signal is limited to the 4:3 frame. The DVR generates the pillar box bars to fill up the screen. In the case of 4:3 material being shown on an HD channel, the HD broadcaster is probably providing the black pillar box bars as part of its signal - and therefore controls what color they are.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Rhoq]

Same with my DirecTV HD DVRs (HR-21). The color of the pillar box borders are selectable via the "Display" area of the Set-Up menu. Black, dark gray and light gray and the options. I personally can't stand it when it's anything but black.

 

[i_am_jim]

Thank you. I have the same service and same box. Based on your reply, I found the menu item on the Scientific Atlanta box using the remote, and changed it to what they call "dark" which looks black to me. Problem solved.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

That's your local Fox station adding those grey bars to their own SD sourced program in an HD broadcast. When they switch over to network HD feed, the 4x3 program has black bars provided like it should.