This Is A Long Shot But Maybe There Is A Tv Engineer About??

[askyourgran]

A few days ago MrAsk was watching Sky Tv and it lost the signal, he may have
fiddled about with the remote control if he was watching the footie, but when it came back on the screen is a square - that is about 4" on either side of the picture is black. The Tv is OK the freeview channels on the 'normal' tv is good, full screen and good sound etc (except it pixellates a lot). We phoned the local Sky engineer who talked us through the procedure to get full screen on Sky and it didn't work. He couldn't help us, and advised that we phone the head office and book an engineer, which would cost us. The TV is OK except this fault on Sky. Does anyone know how we can get full screen back? please.

[Dizmo]

Hey, have you considered rebooting your sky box.The following instructions should take you through it - unless you've already tried that.

1. Power the box off at the mains power supply.
2. Confirm the power light on the box has went out.
3. Power the box back on and the standby light will come on Amber.
4. Wait at least 2 minutes then see if the box will turn back on using the Sky button on the remote control.

[Buenchico]

I'd also recommend rebooting your Sky box (and getting a signal booster for your terrestrial aerial because it's insufficient signal strength that causes the pixellation)

[Aquariel]

If rebooting doesn't fix it :

My TV remote has a button that says "aspect" - if I press this I can make the screen go into "4:3" mode as you described. You probably need this set to something like Auto or 16:9 for it to use the full screen again.

Also, in the Sky settings menu/picture options, the RF1 picture format should be 16:9. If only Sky is affected then this is the more likely fix.

[askyourgran]

Thanks for your replies.. Having bother with the laptop updating or whatever stopping me from using it
We have a booster box for the tv and we re-booted the sky box a couple of times. Then the Sky engineer talking us through the 'options' menu for Sky, RF1 was 16:9 and RF2 was 4.3 as you say Aquariel but that made no difference. I can't see a button on either remote for 'aspects' but thanks for your interest. We have a friend who maybe able to suggest something else?? but he is away until January.

[Mrsspagnoli57]

Do you have a separate remote control for your television (not your sky remote) I ask this because we have a remote for out Philips tv which has a button that allows you to change picture ratios which is useful when you watch a DVD in letterbox format so you can change aspect ratio to 14.3 or 16.9. If I forget to change it back to widescreen when I have finished watching a DVD the screen on Sky is wrong as well. Just a thought.

[Tuvok]

Your tv shouldnhave a menu. That is where you will need to check the setting, as if the sky box is set as above, sounds like the tv has altered.

It may be that if he's been pressing buttons willy-nilly he may have stumbled upon the combination that changes the tv settings.

If you can post the make and model of tv, we can find the manual on the internet and tell you what buttons to press.

[Old_Geezer]

But if the aspect ratio on Freeview is ok, doesn't that suggest the probable cause is with the sky box input to the TV ?

Could try checking the settings at the TV and every other box you have as well. (Multiple device set-up settings screens can be such a confusing 'pain in the neck'.)

[Old_Geezer]

As an aside, sort of empathy thing, I get a similar problem with my Freeview box/TV. The TV tries to auto judge some things and set the ratio. But even if I select manually there is no setting that uses a reasonable portion of the screen and doesn't lose the sides. Channels like QVC lose all the info they put at the sides :-(

[askyourgran]

We have a separate remote for the ordinary (LG) tv which works ok with the TV we have no problem with that, it's just Sky that has lost full screen mode. (Tuvok I am hoping you haven't confirmed my worst fears about the combination of keys.) All I know it is an LG 38".
OG thankfully we haven't had any problems like that....yet.

[Tuvok]

Don't know if this is any use

http://www.lg.com/us/support/product-help/doc-1387293283068-en-LGEAI


Is it all Sky channels?

[Tuvok]

Or this one

http://www.ehow.com/how_5009522_troubleshoot-picture-ratio-lg-tv.html

[askyourgran]

Tuvok thank you, The TV is off now Mr Ask gone to bed, but I will certainly look at your last link again in the morning. The first link doesn't relate to our tv but the second one maybe will help, I recall seeing a zoom and cinema setting on the menu and we didn't try them.
I've a busy day tomorrow so may not be able to let you know the result but I will aim to log on here on Sunday. Thanks.

[askyourgran]

An update on my square screen dilemma. My daughter visited this weekend and I mentioned that the TV screen wasn't right. Within 5 minutes she had put it right. Success! We hadn't got around to turning the TV on to follow your instructions tuvok. But on looking at your reply it was what we should have done. She explained that although the 'normal' Tv looked ok - full screen- (better) sound etc, the ratio wasn't set properly (or had been unwittingly altered) and it affected the Sky screen. She went on to Aspects and altered the ratio. Thank you for your help everyone, thank you Tuvok for finding the solution. She has bought us a smaller tv for the kitchen for Christmas too!