unplayable on sdtv : V - Skyrim

» Sun May 20, 2012 5:25 am

I got this response from Betheseda:
Hello there Rory,

We apologise that you are experiencing a text issue in the game, it is unfortunate that this has happened, and I can assure you that Bethesda are working as fast as they can to send out an update to fix this error.

We appreciate your support for the game in being one of the first to purchase it, and we hope that this issue is resolved swiftly for the likes of people like youself.

Kind Regards,

Francesca, Bethesda Technical Support

» Sun May 20, 2012 9:25 pm

Well I've been having this problem alot as well.It's stupid I don't want to buy a HDtv my tv works fine,plus nor do I have the money to do so.Like its odd cause a few games came with the option to customize the hud(Battlefield 3 from the option menu and most of the Call of duty,, and a few others) hopefully they give us a response,,this is just silly.

» Sun May 20, 2012 5:51 am

Well I've been having this problem alot as well.It's stupid I don't want to buy a HDtv my tv works fine,plus nor do I have the money to do so.Like its odd cause a few games came with the option to customize the hud(Battlefield 3 from the option menu and most of the Call of duty,, and a few others) hopefully they give us a response,,this is just silly.

If you read my post above Betheseda are working on it.

» Sun May 20, 2012 11:17 am

I got this response from Betheseda:
Hello there Rory,

We apologise that you are experiencing a text issue in the game, it is unfortunate that this has happened, and I can assure you that Bethesda are working as fast as they can to send out an update to fix this error.

We appreciate your support for the game in being one of the first to purchase it, and we hope that this issue is resolved swiftly for the likes of people like youself.

Kind Regards,

Francesca, Bethesda Technical Support

Thank you! This is great news!

» Sun May 20, 2012 8:43 am

Thank you! This is great news!

So happy right now. If Bethesda fixes this problem, I will tell everyone I know to go buy Skyrim right now.
Seriously, I will help sell this game.

» Sun May 20, 2012 5:02 pm

I've noticed this problem too. I also can't get the game to play off t he HD it just plays off the disk. I'm also surprised that the download size of Skyrim is 3.8 gigs which is less than REd Dead Redemption, GTA4, Dead Island.

» Sun May 20, 2012 5:27 pm

Well, they officially stated that they're not working on this problem. So I guess we are all [censored].

» Sun May 20, 2012 7:07 pm

Absolutely ridiculous. I'm having the same problem. Nowhere on the Amazon product page does it say that a HDTV is required to play.

I don't want to sound like a prima donna, but I will never buy a Bethesda game again. Awful company.

» Sun May 20, 2012 9:42 am

Absolutely ridiculous. I'm having the same problem. Nowhere on the Amazon product page does it say that a HDTV is required to play.

I don't want to sound like a prima donna, but I will never buy a Bethesda game again. Awful company.

Exactly. Some kind of warning before hand would have sufficed.

» Sun May 20, 2012 12:28 pm

hmmm. My issue with this is if you are on federal aid, you shouldn't be spending money on video games. I don't want to sound harsh but I'm in college, pay all my bills, and work my ass off. Everyone who is saying they cant afford to buy a cheap computer monitor and a vga cable is doing something wrong. Your either lazy or just not really trying. If you cant eat healthy for a week to buy a video game, do you think you should be buying said video game? Id be buying some chicken, fresh veggies etc. That way I would have more energy to work harder or get a new job.

If your complaining because your tv is old and you just dont want to buy a new one, not the developers fault. If they are making a product, a beautiful one, they have to use what is current. Otherwise they aren't going to make any money. Optimizing for sd would take at least another 6+ months of dev time to cater to 155 of the community. Yeah someone looked up that 50-60% of household have HDTV's, but I would bet most of the people playing video games are the 50-60% and maybe 10-15% of people play on SD.

Also the information here is laughable. Someone said their SD plasma was still working? They NEVER made a SD PLASMA. Plasma screens are only HD. Someone also said they have a sd tv but were mad cause they didn't have a hdmi cable? SD tv's do not have hdmi connections, those are HD ONLY. When somone asked is your television rectangle or square I nearly pee'd my pants.

Im done with my rant. Im just tired of people that complain about every game on a sd tv. You know it wasnt made for that, its gonna look like ass. Standard defenition is OUT DATED. Stop expecting them to cater to a older technology.

You give off the impression that you don't know what you're talking about. 6+ months to add support for SDTV's? No, not really. All they would have to do to fix that is change the aspect ratio/ add in a safe zone setting like most games have. And increase the text size. That wouldn't take anywhere near 6+ months, that could be done in less than a week. Very easy fix.

And you've already been proven wrong by the guy that posted the SD Plasma. Also your first paragraph doesn't really make sense. You seem to be suggesting that eating healthily gives you more money and a better job. Whatever you say.

» Sun May 20, 2012 7:32 am

You give off the impression that you don't know what you're talking about. 6+ months to add support for SDTV's? No, not really. All they would have to do to fix that is change the aspect ratio/ add in a safe zone setting like most games have. And increase the text size. That wouldn't take anywhere near 6+ months, that could be done in less than a week. Very easy fix.

And you've already been proven wrong by the guy that posted the SD Plasma. Also your first paragraph doesn't really make sense. You seem to be suggesting that eating healthily gives you more money and a better job. Whatever you say.

What he's trying to tell you is basically get a new TV brah. That crap your playing on is old and the pricing of HDTV's are more accessible to the common man now thus making your old electric bill inducing brick obsolete. Deal with it. Hitting up the forums and having 4 threads on this same topic is just absurd. Go Green bro! When i think SDTV, i think of some hole in the wall motel with crappy wifi. :brokencomputer:

» Sun May 20, 2012 3:07 pm

What he's trying to tell you is basically get a new TV brah. That crap your playing on is old and the pricing of HDTV's are more accessible to the common man now thus making your old electric bill inducing brick obsolete. Deal with it. Hitting up the forums and having 4 threads on this same topic is just absurd. Go Green bro! When i think SDTV, i think of some hole in the wall motel with crappy wifi. :brokencomputer:

I have 4 HDTV's in my house. Unfortunately they are all in separate sections of the house where I cannot play my xbox. I can only play my xbox in my room, which is the only room in the house with an SDTV.

» Sun May 20, 2012 5:32 pm

I have 4 HDTV's in my house. Unfortunately they are all in separate sections of the house where I cannot play my xbox. I can only play my xbox in my room, which is the only room in the house with an SDTV.

Hijack one of those HDTV's and replace it with the brick TV. They will never know the difference. :flamethrower:

» Sun May 20, 2012 3:40 pm

"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." - Bethesda

"Not playing on a supported TV set would definitely cause the problems you are experiencing" Apparently Skyrim requires an HD TV, although I didn't see that listed under the requirements for Xbox360.

I'm dissapointed Bethesda.

» Sun May 20, 2012 6:23 am

I am frankly pretty shocked. I'm not a programmer, but an option to resize the display seems like a tiny patch, since it doesn't have anything to do with the actual game stuff. It's a small change that would make the game playable for a huge amount of people who have purchased it.

I'm lucky. When I set my 360 to widescreen, most of the game's HUD came into view. I can't see things like my HP number on the Skills screen, or my money on the Inventory screen, but those are things I can work around. That being said, I think a lot of people fail to understand that not all SDTVs have the same "TV-safe area." I got lucky, but a lot of people didn't, and they spent sixty dollars on something truly unplayable for them.

It doesn't matter whether the game promoted itself as optimized for HD, or whether people should spend extra money on an HDTV to "get with the times" or whatever rationalization you've got. This kind of HUD framing problem is totally without precedent. The simple fact is, a lot of people spent a lot of money on a product they had no reasonable way of knowing would never work on their hardware, and Bethesda, confronted with this fact, doesn't seem to really care - even when fixing the problem is relatively straightforward.

I can't say I'm not going to purchase any more games by Bethesda. Skyrim is a terrific game so far, and I like terrific games. But if it's true that the decision-makers at Bethesda aren't going to make any effort to resolve this issue, they've lost my respect, probably the respect of many others. I guess it's unfortunate that respect has very little financial weight, huh?

» Sun May 20, 2012 5:09 pm

I traded in 4 games plus the balance cash of course.waited,researched,soaked up every detail about skyrim for months.
i never had a definitive time-line of when I would be able to purchase the game because of financial set backs & other priorities with no employment/being laid off etc.
so you can imagine my surprise when my brother offered to trade in 4 of his favorite games he plays to help me get this game...he knew I wanted it that bad.... :sadvaultboy:

coming home,firing it up and realizing the screen issues just about crushed me....Ive changed it to wide screen in the system settings and yeah it has helped but no...no,I am not playing it how it was designed to be played...seeing the entire screen and in the correct proportions and aspect ration...it is truly sad.

I know what everyone else out there with this similar issue is going through..I can relate & sympathize....and to think fallout 3/new vegas...no issues.
I have never had a problem like this before in a game.
Bethesda,no giving a fair warning that this would be the case seems like a shady as hell....Imagine IF they DID forewarn everyone this would happen...I could then see a lot less sales overall....and don't give me the moving on with the times blah blah...i used to own a very nice hdtv etc.....that still does not excuse this problem IMO.

» Sun May 20, 2012 8:54 pm

I have two SD TV's and they work fine, till they break down I'm not buying a new TV.

I have been playing on my small 20" TV in the basemant, everything is on the screen and readable.

» Sun May 20, 2012 7:57 am

On the back of my box it states the games resolutions are : 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. I didn't read 480p there. Other games have worked on SDTVs even with these clear and easy to read requirements, which is outstanding. In fact some companies could/did patch their games that are having this same problem, but not all of them can/will do it apparently. Like this one. As it currently stands, according to them, they can not patch it - which is fine, why expect someone to do something they say is impossible? To sum this up, read the back of the box for requirements. Just because you have had past luck with getting HD games to work or become compatible with your SDTV, does not mean that the trend will continue forever for all games. It seems the time are moving forward.

» Sun May 20, 2012 7:50 pm

It's really easy for people with HD TVs to tell people with SD TVs to shut the hell up and stop whining...

» Sun May 20, 2012 10:21 am

To those of you telling people struggling to make ends meet to spend hundreds of dollars they don't have on an HDTV they can't afford & shouldn't have to buy just to be able to play one game;

Step 1 - Turn on your 360.

Step 2 - In "My Xbox" scroll all the way to System Settings and click A.

Step 3 - Select Console Settings.

Step 4 - Select Display.

Step 5 - Select Screen Format & then take a good hard look at the settings where it gives you the option of NORMAL (4:3 SDTV) & Widescreen.

Step 6 - Ask yourself honestly; why is it that Bethesda couldn't be bothered supporting a TV format that Microsoft is still dedicated to supporting (because they know millions of households still own SDTV's & either can't afford to upgrade or can't justify the upgrade when their current SDTV still works perfectly fine) less than one week shy of the 6yr anniversary of the launch of the 360?

If Microsoft can still support SDTV on the 360 then why can't Bethesda? And please keep your "HDTV's are cheap" comments to yourselves. All you do with those comments is either reveal your total ignorance regarding how much people are struggling to make ends meet today or prove that you're a spoiled little kid with no real world experience still living at your parents place, are using their HDTV & have never had to struggle to pay your own bills once in your life. Either way Bethesda needs to pull their heads out & address this issue.

» Sun May 20, 2012 3:12 pm

Skyrim has been great on my SD TV but future games I'll be checking screen images, I passed on FFXIII because it looked to HD for my square goggle box.

At this point I've only got as far as finishing the Golden Claw Quest and it was amazing. I only got given an Xbox 360 08/26/11 so have been right into Oblivion GOTY which I could never play because my PC isn't up to snuff. My sister gave me the Fallout games for 360 but haven't played since I was dead into Oblivion.

I was real chuffed that Skyrim has given me no problems, and I only want to say this because not all SD TV users have any problems with whats on the screen, and I am playing in normal not widescreen. Game details are fantastic, I sit fairly close at 6ft away from the 20" screen.

» Sun May 20, 2012 9:31 pm

To those of you telling people struggling to make ends meet to spend hundreds of dollars they don't have on an HDTV they can't afford & shouldn't have to buy just to be able to play one game;

Step 1 - Turn on your 360.

Step 2 - In "My Xbox" scroll all the way to System Settings and click A.

Step 3 - Select Console Settings.

Step 4 - Select Display.

Step 5 - Select Screen Format & then take a good hard look at the settings where it gives you the option of NORMAL (4:3 SDTV) & Widescreen.

Step 6 - Ask yourself honestly; why is it that Bethesda couldn't be bothered supporting a TV format that Microsoft is still dedicated to supporting (because they know millions of households still own SDTV's & either can't afford to upgrade or can't justify the upgrade when their current SDTV still works perfectly fine) less than one week shy of the 6yr anniversary of the launch of the 360?

If Microsoft can still support SDTV on the 360 then why can't Bethesda? And please keep your "HDTV's are cheap" comments to yourselves. All you do with those comments is either reveal your total ignorance regarding how much people are struggling to make ends meet today or prove that you're a spoiled little kid with no real world experience still living at your parents place, are using their HDTV & have never had to struggle to pay your own bills once in your life. Either way Bethesda needs to pull their heads out & address this issue.

HDTV's are cheap. Sorry bro! Truth hurts! If someone is trying to make ends meet then they sure don't need a internet bill or dropping 60 plus taxes on a said game. But that's just like my opinion dude. and not everyone is a spoiled kid. Some of us are hard working people with families or in college or both. The possibilities are endless as you never know who is on the other line of a reply in internet land. Just because someone calls it how it is in a realistic way doesn't automatically make them a spoiled kid. This is a luxury. I don't see them handing xbox 360's and HDTV's out at the welfare office. Plus HDTV's are no more expensive than a SDTV was when it was in it's prime.

» Sun May 20, 2012 12:04 pm

"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." - Bethesda

"Not playing on a supported TV set would definitely cause the problems you are experiencing" Apparently Skyrim requires an HD TV, although I didn't see that listed under the requirements for Xbox360.

I'm dissapointed Bethesda.

How is an e-mail that one user got from support an official statement? We don't even know if it is real so why is everybody treating it like it is real?

» Sun May 20, 2012 9:32 pm

HDTV's are cheap. Sorry bro! Truth hurts! If someone is trying to make ends meet then they sure don't need a internet bill or dropping 60 plus taxes on a said game. But that's just like my opinion dude.

They'll probably be even cheaper when my SD TV breaks down. I wouldn't have bought an Xbox I was making my PS2 the last console I would buy, but a friend gave me his, he was going to give it to his nephew but the kid already had one. He knew I play the odd RPG so wanting to give it a good home gave it to me. His wife threw out the games he had, so needing a game I bought Oblivion. One good thing about being behind the times is that I can play the older games cheap, Skyrim cost me close to $70 CDN with tax, lucky my birthday is this month because that's a big splurge.

Me and the wife don't spend a lot of time watching TV just the odd programs, and just have basic cable.

Again I'm not complaining about my SD tele, Skyrim plays great.

» Sun May 20, 2012 10:10 am

Yeah I had this problem. In my case, I have a 32" standard-definition TV, which was JUST FINE for Oblivion. Unfortunately when I play Skyrim, though everything else is decent, the bottom is cut-off, and I can't see my magicka, health, and fatigue meters. The text of everything but books is too small to read.

I've been forced to play the game on the living room TV, which unfortunately limits my playing time.