LOL yes I am but I'm okay with that. It's the screen cutoff I can't deal with.

I was the one that got the response in which they said it was not going to be possible to fix. Here is the entire email conversation with names edited out for privacy purposes.

My original email that I sent to Bethesda:

Message: To Whom it May Concern,

I'd like to start by saying that I love Skyrim. Having said that, I am experiencing a problem that I hope you will address. The text on the screen is extremely small and very difficult to read. I am using a 40+ inch SD TV that is using 4:3 resolution. I know it's not the state of the art TV that we have these days but I frankly can't afford an HD TV. Besides that, every other 360 game I own has text that is big enough to read without any problems. If you could fix this one issue in a patch, I would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,
[deleted]

Here is the response I got:
Hey [deleted],

We apologize for the inconvenience, but unfortunately there is no way to fix this problem. Although Skyrim can be played on a SD TV, the game was made to be more geared towards an actual widescreen HD TV. Not playing on a supported TV set would definitely cause the problems you are experiencing. We once again apologize for the inconvenience and not being able to assist you today. It is a great game and I hope you still consider playing it even through the annoyances. Thank you for your time and if you come across any other issues, please do not hesitate and ask.

Best Regards,
[deleted]

If you think I'm lying, that's your right but it doesn't change the truth. Frankly, I'm still really disappointed in Bethesda's decision to not address this problem. I have a dozen 360 games and this is the only game that has a problem like this. I'd like to echo another comment that another user made and that is if the 360 is designed to be compatible with an SDTV, then the games should also be compatible. If they want to make the Xbox 720 HDTV only, that's fine but Bethesda shouldn't pretend that the 360 has any such restriction. That's my gripe and it's very frustrating for me and MANY MANY others as you can tell from the numerous threads that have appeared.

My recommendation is for everyone that plays on an SDTV to send an email to Bethesda and express your concerns. The only way they will change their mind is if they see a lot of complaints about it.

Bethesda is responsible for you not researching a product after its launch to see if there are going to be any issues? Its like someone buying a computer version of the game but not having a good enough computer to run it. If your not gonna get a TV that is up-to-date then perhaps buying new games on launch night is a bad idea. Perhaps waiting until after it launches, making a post asking if anyone with SDTV's are having an issue and then making a judgement call. You CANNOT blame a company for not telling you that your TV is a POS and may hinder your experience playing the game. You can only blame yourself for not researching a product before you buy. ESPECIALLY if you have had experiences in other games with the HUD being pushed off the screen.

Since when do 360 game developers post system requirements prior to launch? There are no system recs for Xbox games! This isn't about the PC version. And this is the only game this has ever happened with, not to mention the fact that the Xbox itself is compatible with SDTVs. Why should this one game be any different? Plenty of other games have the option to change the aspect ratio or HUD settings.
Aside from this issue, the game looks and plays fine (not counting the texture glitch) on my SD.

Its not that I don't believe, its that another user claims to have sent an e-mail and got the response that the problem was being worked. Honestly, its the tech support I don't believe.

I agree with Vezner, everyone who has this problem should email Bethesda and ask them to fix it in a patch. Maybe if we get enough people asking about it they will change their minds.

as i said on another subforum.
when developing for a plattform that isn't exclusive to HD TV and supports SD TV users and games then as developers you damn well have to take the SD TV user fanbase into account, until a time comes where a new plattform doesn't work on SD TVs but on HD TVs alone this is what has to be done.

I think I have a temporary solution:

Remove the game disc from the XBOX.
Go back to the main xbox menu.
Go to settings and then change the display to (50 mhz widescreen).
The image is distorted in the game somewhat, BUT, you will be able to read the text and the compass.

It's far from perfect (Space Marine has a viewable playing area option that you can change within the game itself, I hope that they team implement this as a mod too)
but it will help until you can buy a new TV.

Yeah that was me. I can show a screenshot of the email if anyone wants me to.
Now Venizer (sorry if I spelt it wrong - didn't look at your name properly) got his email after I received my email so I am thinking they have changed their minds about helping the SDTV. Since the Betheseda worker emailed me telling me something different. Should we get a third opinion?

Shaido in regards to the Widescreen solution. My game looks alot better in Widescreen than it does normally.
I changed my XBox settings to Widescreen. I changed my television picture to 16:9 and it's looking lovely.... the only problem now is the writing.

Well if you want a third opinion there is a user in http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1272190-sdtv-fix-for-cut-of-compass-and-text/ who said they sent an e-mail and is going to post the response he/she gets.

I only just got an HDTV 3 weeks ago... I can understand why people dont game on them... BECAUSE MOST OF THE WORLD IS BROKE!!

If you actually have to work and pay taxes and bills etc you cant afford an HDTV... God little kids commenting about this crap annoys me... Wait tell mom and dad stop buying crap for you.

I play on a 19 inch SDTV, and I have no problems, I can read all text. In addition to that, nothing is cut off the screen..I'm not sure why some people have a problem with their's.

I sent them an email yesterday as well but have yet to hear back.

And don't bother telling the spoiled people to shut up, it doesn't work. I already had one of my topics locked because of them.

whats their email adress?

Not sure, but the page to email them at is here: http://support.gamesas.com/eng/email.asp

They stopped replying to my emails. All I can think is that they are getting swamped by them now. I feel no sympathy for them.

Hopefully they will make a public announcement on the issue if this is happening. I can understand HD becoming the new standard, but obviously it is not a requirement, and hopefully Bethesda will realize it.

I personally cannot see why they cannot make two modes for SD and HD. All they would be doing changing the resolution and size of text. If it is impossible to do, then they should come right out and say it. This way our hope can be destroyed and replaced with "WTF?!"'s and " "'s.

Indeed, they either need to admit that they don't care about a sizable chunk of their consumers (in which case I will be selling the game) or they need to fix the damn problem (at the very least, tell us that they are working on it).

Technological advances do not curve in a linear fashion. Especially in the 21st century if you were to actually try to subjectively chart it. SDTVs are indeed "stone-age". Just like MP3 CD-Players, etc.


Most of the world doesn't even have a way to play videogames, assuming they know what they are.

My household is supported by a single income, tax brackets puts us in the middle of the middle class, we easily afforded a HDTV. Faux advlts projecting their woefully inadequate incomes on others for something like a luxury (gaming) is annoying.



Lastly, I thought in emails that we have had posted in this thread, that Bethesda said they CAN NOT, as in are not capable of, of fixing this issue for SD users. Maybe I mis-read will check later.

Hopefully this changes.

nobody uses those anymore... whereas a LOT of people use SDTVs. they are not anywhere close to stone age, just because you personally don't have one. 65% of households have an HDTV. that means 1/3 of the population has no HDTV at all. and that means even more than 1/3 play games on a SDTV, since just because you have an HDTV in the house, doesnt mean you have the ability to play games on it. i was reading a blog article last night talking about how only 53% of people played Gears of War 2 on an HDTV, and the blog author predicted that xbox 360 and ps3 were going to start slowly making their games non-SDTV compatible in order to force everybody who plays to buy HDTV, for the benefit of their NEXT consoles.

Nice evaluation of BS statistics there pal. SDTV is out. Don't even see them in stores no more.

65% of households have HDTVs, the rest either own SD or DONT own any TV at all. There is no way to reasonably presume over 1/3 of games are played on SDTVs now, especially considering Gears of War 2 was released a while ago and is in no way recent. If anything the point could and will be made that at least 53% of Gears of War 3 gamers can be reasonably expected to play in HD, not including the natural growth of HD televisions in the market since their unit cost has plummeted since GOW2 released and GOW3 released. To address the last point, I hope that blogger was right, the Xbox360 and PS3 should help guide their targeted market to the peripherals they feel will be needed to play on the new consoles releasing to replace them, whenever that is. Besides by the time the Xbox Next and PS4 are released, HDTV on average, WILL be cheaper than their SDTV counterparts we're when comparing time frames, and as it currently stands their pricing is already reaching parity for price compared to size of screen.

Some of us can't afford 'dirt cheap'. And how the hell would I get my parents to buy one, anyway? They don't care. I don't have any money, no job. It took a ton of work to get them to buy the game, and that used up a significant amount of money for us. SDTV's are still common, it's Bethesda's responsibility to make sure we CAN play the game, regardless of our technology. This NEEDS to be fixed.

Hell my granny has a HDTV and that's saying something lmao. But i see where your coming from with being on budget and all but you can't blame Bethesda for you not having the optimal hardware or your said money woes. SD's are still common to you because you own one.

Here is a decent monitor for $139. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824262017

This one is decent too if your on the cheap for $139 except you would need a dvi2hdmi cable or adapter http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009305 or if you want to get cheaper, here is one for $119 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824262011 You can get a decent HD experience on the cheap.