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Mini Box Aspect ratio on 4:3 TV
This is annoying as ***, and I'm pretty sure it's an oversight in the mini box firmware that Cox won't bother fixing. I have a few old 4:3 CRTs around the house, and the picture is completely cropped off on the sides. The worst part is that this doesn't seem to be adjustable in the settings either. If I go to Settings->Audio & Video->Video Output Form, the only option is for "480i standard" resolution. According to the documentation, I should be able to hit right-arrow and choose the aspect ratio, but pressing the right arrow doesn't bring up any options for changing the aspect ratio.
I can sort of fix this by pressing the "zoom" button on the remote a few times. This gets the picture "unzoomed" to a somewhat reasonable letterbox, but the sides are still cropped a little bit. This is more obvious on channels like ESPN that have graphics near the edge of the screen.
I doubt Cox is even going to bother fixing this since they seem to think that nobody uses CRTs any more, but it really wouldn't be that hard to fix. Makes me wonder why I even bother to keep this service.
Allan
Moderator
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Hello,
What channels are you experience this issue on?
Thanks,
Allan - Cox Support Forums Moderator.
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patrick-gaule
New Contributor
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I figured this out - there are 2 different "mini boxes" available from Cox in Omaha. Some of the mini boxes are made by a company called "Evolution" and others are made by Cisco.
The first mini box I got (with the aspect ratio problems described above) was an "Evolution". While setting up mini boxes at my parents house, I noticed that their 4:3 TVs did *not* have any problems displaying the 16:9 picture in a proper letterboxed format. Out of curiosity, I checked the label on their mini boxes vs mine. I had an "Evolution" and my parents had a "Cisco DTA 250HD". I went to the Cox Solutions store today to swap out my Evolution mini box for a Cisco mini box and it works!
So Cox - please let your engineers know that the Evolution mini boxes do not work properly with 4:3 TVs. The aspect ratio is messed up and there is no way to change it in the settings. For anyone else having this problem - insist on getting a Cisco minibox. If the serial number begins with "CS", then it's from Cisco. If it begins with EV, it's "Evolution" For Omaha customers - the Cox store in the Nebraska Furniture Mart definitely has cisco mini boxes.
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Becky
+2 more
Moderator
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Thank you very much for your post! While we knew they were coming, we didn't realize that the Cisco mini boxes were in circulation yet. Your keen eye for detail and the troubleshooting steps you went through provide us with a lot of information. We will pass this info to our video marketing teams and get the word out to our retail stores. Thanks again!
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