Windows 7: Still no fix for MC live TV zoom setting?

I am now running Media Centre under Windows 7 RTM 32 bit on my HTPC and was hoping that the problem I have been reporting repeatedly since the early betas would have been fixed by now but sadly Microsoft do not seem to be listening!

I have to use Zoom 3 setting to fill the screen vertically on my Hitachi widescreen plasma as it has a native resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels (i.e.rectangular not square). I use the recommended 1024x768 via VGA from my Radeon 4670 graphics card. Changing channels (or sometimes just pressing the record button) makes it revert to the default Zoom 1. The annoying thing is that it is not consistent when doing exactly the same operation so I have had to program a button on my Harmony remote to change it back when this happens.

Playing DVD's via WMP and Media Browser is never a problem as, once set to Zoom 3, it stays there as it should.

This problem is a great shame as Windows 7 is so much better than my previous Vista set up in all other respects (Vista never changes the zoom setting). I know from feedback that many of us who do not have 16:9 native resolution 'HD Ready' monitors/tvs have to put up with this and I cannot believe that our only option would be to replace them.

Is there a solution to this on the horizon or will anyone at Microsoft sort this out and issue an update in the near future?

I output to either a 1024x768 4:3 LCD projector or 1920x1200 16:10 monitor and the zoom levels stay consistent between channel changes / restarting / recording etc.

Unfortunately, I am unable to replicate your issue, so I can't be of any assistance

Does the zoom level change when using the keyboard to change channels, or does it only occur when using the remote?

It makes no difference whether I change channels with the keyboard or remote. The intermittent changes to the zoom setting still occur. There does not seem to be a clear pattern as to when it will happen. Occassionally the original channel will change zoom just before it switches to the new channel.

I have tried different resolutions through VGA and it makes no difference.I know that I am not the only one with this problem as there have been unsuccessful attempts to find a solution on Hack7MC.com here.

It would seem perhaps that Microsoft have tried to be a bit cleverer than the Vista setup to automatically adjust zoom settings by reading flags from the video signal so that any attempt to apply manual changes to registry settings are not retained.

Why couldn't they have left a perfectly good setup alone?