Sony RDR-HXD870 picture compatibility with smart TV

[Potager_girl]

Bought this unit at least 15+ years ago with a Samsung TV.  The TV has just died and I'm looking at a smart tv.  However, have temporarily plugged the Sony dvd recorder into a old Bush tv and the picture is 2/3 of the screen size.  Have tried altering  - cinema/ 4:3/ 16:9 etc -  but nothing is changing the picture size. now I'm concerned this may happen with a smart tv.

I called Richer Sounds for advice regarding the new TV I'm looking at and they said if the units are connected via HDMI then technically they should be compatible but there may be an issue with the Sony dvd recorder and can't offer any other advice.

Anyone out there with some pearls of wisdom?  Thank you

[rooobb]

The problem I think is more related to the TV than the recorder, I've it connected with an OLED A1 without any issue. Be aware that I don't know the roadmap for DVBT in UK, but in Italy, as soon as they'll switch to the new DVBT2 standard, the internal tuner of the RDRHX870 will be useless

[Mooly01]

I can't see there being any issues and fwiw I use an HXD870 via HDMI into a KD43XD8305 without issue. I have two of these recorders, absolutely brilliant machines.

What you need to know is that both recorder and TV have separate aspect ratio settings (and once set you don't need touch them). Read the section in the recorders user manual for HDMI Settings.

You need to enable HDMI control in the HDMI menu if you want the recorder to have control over the TV (for example to switch the TV to show the recorder when you press Guide or Play etc and for the TV to be able to turn the recorder off when the TV is turned off) 

[Potager_girl]

Cheers Rooobb.

Looking online it looks the UK is already at 70% so far, I know that recorder will only be compatible for a little while longer but was hoping to get a bit more time out of it!!

[Potager_girl]

Thanks Mooly01.

Yes, I've already tried to correct/ alter both the record and TV aspect ratio settings with no joy.  Also the HDMI from the recorder has control over the TV but still no joy 😞 

[Mooly01]

Lets try this.

Turn the recorder on and select set the TV so it is displaying the picture from the recorder. Use a known good widescreen transmission such as NEWS24 on the recorder for setting this up.

1/ On the recorder press System Menu and goto Initial Setup.

2/ Scroll down right down the lefthand menue list to 'Playback' which is at the bottom on the second page.

3/ Set it so it says 'TV Type = 16:9'

4/ Go back to the left hand menu and scroll down to 'HDMi Output'

5/ Make sure the setting called '4:3 output' is set to 'Normal'. This ensure material recorded originally in 4:3 plays back correctly.

6/ Make sure the setting marked 'HDMi Control' is set to 'On'.

7/ Exit by pressing 'System Menu'.

That completes the settings for the recorder (these are the exact settings I use). Once these are set do not alter them again because I know these work correctly.

On my TV (KD43XD8305) you need to adjust the aspect ratio for each source and input. So with the TV displaying the recorder picture I press 'Action Menu' and goto 'Widemode' and the setting to be used is 'Full'. My options here are Normal, Full and Widescreen. You would think it should be 'Normal' but its not, the option that works correctly is 'Full'.

Good luck. 

[Potager_girl]

Mooly01 you are a legend!!

I was going through the picture adjustment section and would never have looked in playback, it was stuck in letterbox.

Thanks again 😊

[Mooly01 · Accepted solution]

Excellent and thanks for the update, I'm pleased that worked

Edit... and also make sure you are using at least SP mode or higher (such as HQ) for recordings, particularly on a large screen TV.