Widescreen
From TivoZA
Using the TiVo, you are able to record and view widescreen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreen) content but there are a couple of things you should be aware of.
TV's & set-top-boxes
The first thing to note is that the TiVo won't perform the letterboxing (i.e. add black bars). If your TV has an aspect ratio of "4:3" (i.e. it's not widescreen) then either your TV or your set-top-box will need to perform the letterboxing.
Most modern TV's support "16:9" (i.e. widescreen) mode in which they will letterbox the picture. Newer TV's, especially widescreen ones, support "widescreen signaling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreen_signaling)" (wss) which allows the TV to automatically detect the aspect ratio of what is being viewed and then adjust its settings accordingly.
Many set-top-boxes (e.g. DSTV decoder) allow you to select either "4:3" or "16:9" as the output aspect ratio. Note that although the DSTV decoder allows you to select the output aspect ratio, it doesn't perform letterboxing so if your TV doesn't support "16:9" content then it's best to leave the setting to "4:3". If your TV does support letterboxing then no matter weather it's has a native aspect ratio is "4:3" or "16:9", it's best to set the output aspect ratio on the decoder to "16:9". Without setting the output aspect ratio to "16:9", the DSTV decoder simply performs a centre cut-out in which the content outside the regular "4:3" frame is removed.
The output aspect ratio on the DSTV decoder can be set using the DSTV remote, press "menu" then select:
"Advanced Options" -> "TV Installation" -> "9949" -> (Select TV1 or TV2 if necessary) -> "Aspect Ratio" -> Select either "16:9" or "4:3" -> "Accept these settings"
TiVo & widescreen signaling
Although the TiVo will record the content as is, it's important for the TiVo to know when the content being recorded is widescreen as it needs to pass this information onto the TV when the recorded show is being viewed.
The TiVo is able to detect if the content is widescreen by checking for the "widescreen signal" stream within the broadcast content. When the TiVo encodes the content to MPEG format, it needs to store the "widescreen signal" which by default it doesn't do but it can set to do as described below.
You can enable "widescreen signal" support by typing the below from the telnet prompt. Typing this will enable support until your TiVo is rebooted so a better option is to add it to the end of the '/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author' file.
iicset 0x8c 0x26 0x7 iicset 0x8c 0x27 0x80
To disable "widescreen signal" support, type:
iicset 0x8c 0x26 0x0 iicset 0x8c 0x27 0x0
TiVo menus
The above settings will retain the broadcast content widescreen signal settings but you may find that the on-screen menus appear a little stretched when viewed in "16:9" mode, one option to fix this is to install a narrower font as discussed here (http://tivoza.nanfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=223).
