Page 1 of widescreen queston

I was just wondering how many channels on Sky Digital broadcast in widescreen? The reason I ask is that we have just got a widescreen TV and have noticed on alot of channels the image appears to be stretched to fit the screen, where as on say sky sports or BBC1 the picture is fine.

Check the TV manual. It sounds like you are using a widescreen setting that is stretching 4:3 channels/programs too. May want to set it to auto switch.

I checked the manual and it said the TV automatically switches to the appropriate setting so long as the channel is broadcasting a certain signal, so it would appear that most Sky digital channels aren`t transmitting this signal. Should I be altering a setting on the digibox?

Thre is a setting on the boxes to switch between a widescreen and 4:3 TV. Have youy set this to widescreen?

Sounds to me as though you have things set up about right - as far as I am aware , the majority of channels on Sky Digital are NOT in widescreen.
The BBC channels and ITV are , so is CH4 and CH5 - Sky Movies Widescreen of course , Sky Sports 1 a lot of the time - most of the others are not.
On the settings on the digibox , make sure the picture format is set to 16:9 and Scart Control ON.
Look at Sky Movies Widescreen and your picture should switch to Wide and then switch to another Sky channel and you will find the picture will switch to the Smart or stretched mode (whatever it may be called on your brand of TV)

thanks for the help guys, I just didnt realise that so few channels actually broadcast in widescreen, anyway thanks for your time.

Although I don`t own a widescreen TV, whenever i set my sky receiver to auto switch (letterbox format) it just does not seem to know what it wants to do and pulses between normal aspect and letterbox ratios..... quethe fook?