Another TV question-- can't get widescreen

[Doc]

Black wrote:
For whatever reason those setings didn't change everything.
My EyeTVs have made me acutely aware of which channels are HD as the window automatically resizes when you channel surf, and he was getting the 4:3 on a station that's always HD. Although according to what non-~Dan wrote there could be some 'true' image size that it's sensing . . .?

It's also possible that the cable company is transmitting a 4:3 image (Maybe an alternate-feed. Maybe cropped.) to your friend's house because he didn't shell out for a more expensive digital cable box.

[Black]

Oops, everything should have been anything.
Was wondering about the box . . . haven't had cable TV personally since about 1985.

[Doc]

If your friend's tv has a QAM tuner, he should try bypassing the cable box to see how many channels he can tune-in in HD without it.

When I started dropping cable services I discovered that I got a whole slew of HD cable channels on my tv without any box. The box was blocking or cropping a couple of dozen HD channels.

[WHiiP]

You also need to set the display size on both the TV and the Cable Box. Comcast also has a regular channel and an HD channel of each station that does HD. You MUST be on the HD channel to get HD.

Just FYI...

[OWC Jamie]

Even if what you are recieving is a cable 4:3 signal the Tv should have a capactity for stretching the picture to eliminate black bars at the top/ bottom and left/right. Usually looks like heck, especially with letterboxing.
My TV when the picture 'adjustment' is selected one has to hit a button to make it stick and it's not 'enter' and that little necessity is not mentioned in the crappy poorly translated to english owner's manual. (mine was stuck in "fill left /right by cropping top/bottom" mode )

[N-OS X-tasy!]

See my post above.