I wanted a cheap HD over the air receiver, so I bought an activated Voom unit off ebay.

The thing works wonderfully except for one glaring problem:

It does not support letterboxing within a 4:3 display through the component output.

Let me explain. With the receiver, you can choose 4 different outputs, 480i, 480P, 720P, 1080i. HD programming is in a 16:9 aspect ratio, and to make the receiver display correctly on a 4:3 TV, the engineers created an option to display the 16:9 picture in a letterbox format that puts the black bars above and below the image.

However, this feature only works with RF and composite out. When you enable the "letterbox" option when using the component output, nothing happens. The 4:3 monitor will stretch the 16:9 image vertically making everything look tall.

I researched this receiver a lot before buying one, and found no mention anywhere of this problem.
I know a lot of us here use 4:3 LCDs that don't support 16:9 resolutions, so I thought I would mention it.

Lame :/

I am not sure if this is the problem, but is the monitor adjusting the signal? My 15" BenQ did the same with the Samsung until I purchased a signal converter (VGA2TV2WAY).

Wow, extremely. Thanks for the heads up Chad.

If your monitor doesn't support 16:9, it will stretch the image. The letterbox feature on the Voom box was created so a 16:9 image could display properly on a 4:3 TV.

The problem is, this letterbox feature is disabled when you use component output.
(I don't know about the DVI out because I have nothing to test it with).

Works on my box...

I used to install for Voom until they went bust, I have a few here I can play around with, I also have the manual for it. I'll have to see what you mean. I also have about 75 remotes if any one wants one. and about 20 off air antennas. mine started to reset itself when I tune to channel 11 analog.

I tested with composite out. It didn't work either. Anyone experience differently?

Do you still have some spare off air antennas? How can I get one?

Hmmm... how did you get it to work? What kind of monitor are you using? 4:3 or 16:9? CRT or LCD? What type of connection? component or composite?

Thanks!

*cough* i'll take those off yer hands..

anyone looking for Voom remotes or winegard HD antennas e-mail me at TESCORP@STARBAND.NET

I still havent had the chance to hook up and test the outputs for 16:9 aspect I have to try it. I do have the unit set to display wide screen format on the coax and s-video outs just fine. oh yeah, it stopped resetting on channel 11 and now works just fine. I did get both of mine for free so I cant complain.

My voom box works really well. The picture has been excellent. No problems with the letter boxing on mine through component.

if anyone has a voom box for sale please let me know! my parents have an HDTV but it doesn't have an internal OTA tuner. I want them to see what HD looks like on their tv! it's a 55" widescreen. thanks!