HD geeks
 

Got Direct TV HD and no HD TV in the bedroom. Had no HD TV unit for that room.
Hooked a JVC 36" monitor, non HD, to the HD DVR.
Got a vertical, split screen with 7" black vertical space in between the pictures.

No matter what I do, it stays. Formatting?
Thx ahead!

Sounds like the wife messed with the remote

This may sound dumb, do you have a HD dish outside? You need the HD dish, HD receiver and HDTV for the components to work. The HD receiver, of course, is connected to the HDTV.

I've had DirecTV for years and I've never heard of that issue. Are you sure it is a HD monitor?

Sorry Wag. Edited my post. The monitor is not an HD unit. Yes, I have all new HD equipment from Direct TV as of yesterday, including the dish.

normally i wouldn't reply because i hate the word "geek", but regardless....

you probably need to go through the setup on the D* box to make sure it's outputting the correct signal to the tv, e.g. that it's not outputting 720p and your tv can't handle the res etc.

Well I'm confused the :) That is your problem right there, non-HD monitor hooked up to HD output receiver.

Thx. Thought so. Just havn't figured out which TV I want for the bedroom yet.

Yep - totally agree with Wag...

hold on a sec, if it's not an HD tv, how do you have it hooked up? via composite (R,W,Y )? if so, and the box is setup correctly, it should send an SD signal to the tv over composite. Unless you've jammed a set of component cables into the composite inputs on the tv.

An HD box will output SD to an SD tv over composite if set up correctly. Make sure the box is setup correctly.

DirectTV with non-HD receiver
 

I have a SD TV hooked up to an HD receiver in my office and it works just fine (via the composite output). HD channels are a bit squished but tolerable.