My current 15inch flat screen tv in the kitchen went wrong on Friday 24th January so rather than buying another I decided to dust off an old but perfectly working 14inch 4:3 Phillips set, I nipped to Tesco and brought a set top box and connected everything up. After tuning everything in and adjusting the settings I then set the to 4:3 pan and , I had already noticed on a family members old 4:3 portable with set top box that and its sister had black lines top and bottom during the broadcasts and the pan and scan feature did not work on these channels (all others channels were ok) never did find out what the problem was tho.

My set top box and 4:3 portable did exactly the same with channel 4 and its sister channels too regarding the black lines, however turning on the kitchen tv on Tuesday morning 28th I noticed that BBC One also had black bars top and bottom (no other BBC channels were affected) but when it got to lunchtime and the local Look East news came on the pan and scan setting worked fine and the black bars disappeared, then after the local news finished and the usual broadcast returned the black bars returned.

Were the BBC carrying out any tests on BBC One or has something changed in the , the black bars are the same size as those on channel 4 and its sister channels so could it be the same sort of thing, any thoughts or would be much appreciated.

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Sudbury (Suffolk, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Monday 3 February 2014 4:17AM

Well whatever was going on with BBC One it appears to have only lasted a day, turned the telly on Thursday morning (30th) and has no black bars, gave it till the end of the weekend before posting just in case something was still not right.

Mind you and its sister are still the same with the black bars on a 4:3 telly, guess I will never really know, its just one of those things that being the sort of person I am, makes me inquisitive.

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