My parents have Xfinity (but no Roku/streaming) and Xfinity cable is complicated because for many of the broadcast channels, they have both an SD feed (which is naturally 4:3) and an HD feed (which is naturally 16:9). Add to that, many of these channels are already showing misformatted/adjusted stuff before Xfinity picks them up so you have all manner of variations including 4:3 material stretched wide, and stuff shown simultaneously pillarboxed and letterboxed. (And then to that you have the user preferences such as: I have always wanted to see material undistorted, whereas my father has always wanted his screen to be filled up regardless of what that did to the image.)
So, it’s all hard to say from what you’ve posted. Many of the shows still floating around cable TV are old and were indeed filmed in 4:3. So on those shows, it will be “natural” (for those of us who prefer undistorted TV) for the show to be pillarboxed, but many or all commercials to be fullscreen. (Because the commercials are usually new.)
On the other hand, there are also the Xfinity or source station misconfigurations (or maybe adaptations if you like those adjustments).
So, first make sure you’re watching the exactly same channel. For example, on my parents Xfinity system, if you select a local station like 6, you get it in SD. But if you select something like 506 or 5206, then you get the same station, but in HD. (Or something like those numbers.)
If you’ve ruled that out, you may want to call Xfinity – remember this is their app, talking to their system. It’s possible that they make it annoying because they like that $20 rental fee on boxes that were probably fully paid off in the first year of use.
Banned but back. Because why not?
