Ok so I bought one of the cheap AWA STB's from Big W last week, just to see what reception would be like here. After a week of fiddling I can now get all the channels. However every now-and-then, like when a station goes to an ad the picture becomes smaller, as in there's a 6cm black border all round the screen with the smaller picture in the centre. It doesn't seem like anything's getting cropped, it's just a smaller picture. Then sometimes after several minutes it might return to the correct screen-filled size.

I found a post here where they said it could be the auto-scaling feature on the tv or something. I've been through the tv's menu and can't find anything to fix this. So what else could I try?

Thanks
Dave.

It could be that your cheap STB is responding to AFD in the picture. SC10 and more recently WIN (although I suspect WIN is simply leaking it through) in regional QLD both have AFDs in their transmissions. SC10 uses it to control the aspect ratio selection on their video decoders for analogue transmissions where the areas analogue transmission is derived from the SD digital broadcast.

It may also be that TV station in your area is transmitting WSS which does similar things to AFD but are visible in the picture as a series of dashes at the top of the image (some STBs mask it so you can't see it).

If it is the above doing it, updated firmware may be the answer. Hitachi PDPs suffered from the problem with SC10 and WIN, but updates are available to stop them taking notice of it.

Thanks for explaining the AFD thing.

But why does it only do it sometimes? Like I might be watching a show on SC10 and the picture is the correct size. But then an ad will come on and the picture shrinks. And when the program comes back on it remains small. That sounds more like the fault of the STB firmware than my tv, unless the tv is seeing some signal to make it zoom automatically.

But there must be a few people here who have bought these STB's? If so is anyone else getting this in the Bendigo region? I'd like to figure this out since now I know reception is ok here I'm going to get a better box.

Dave,

If you can try the STB on another screen, that will determine which one is the problem. (I'm tipping the STB).

I'm in the Bendigo area now, and have not seen any issues with any STB's/screen combinations like you describe, but I don't have an AWA box to compare.

Sounds like one of the quirky things cheap boxes often do.

Well I haven't really been able to test it until today because I've only had 3 channels to play with previously. But I just set the STB to 4:3(P&S) and it's working fine on all channels. ABC seems to be cutting off the sides a bit (station logo only half on screen) but all other channels seem fine. My cheap tv seems to have a huge overscan area though. Should this really be the correct setting or is it some mismatch between STB and TV?

Either way I'm very pleased that up here in Echuca, I'm getting decent reception, much better than the analog "fuzzy when it's raining" crud. I used to be able to tell when rain was coming from the Bendigo direction just by the fade-ins/outs. Though this has a lot to do with the ancient aerial, and the neighbors damn trees right near it.

Thanks all.
Dave.

That's the same behaviour I noticed when I was viewing SC10 with programs that were AFD aware. I guess it comes down to how often SC10 was signalling the aspect ratio.