Perhaps I'm missing something here. I got a nice Sony yesterday, my first widescreen. Most shows, aired in 4:3, need to be stretched to fill the screen, making everything too wide. To me, unwatchable. So I watch unstretched with the black bars on the sides. This I expected. What I didn't expect was shows that air in widescreen don't fill the screen unless stretched either. These shows have black bars on the top AND on the sides. Is this right?

Those shows aren't anamorphic. They are letterboxed. meaning the black bars are broadcast with the show. It sucks.

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Your TV should have an "Aspect" button, or similar, on the remote, allowing you to zoom in on those widescreen shows.

Unless you are watching an HD channel, which will broadcast in 16:9, regular channels are all 4:3 (widescreen shows on a 4:3 channel have the letterboxing built-in as bazookaman mentioned).

until all broadcast shows are in the same aspect ratio, i'll stick with my CRT TV.

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incognegro
until all broadcast shows are in the same aspect ratio, i'll stick with my CRT TV.

Not to slight your choice any, but i find that watching the few shows that there are in HD on a widescreen TV more than make up for having to put up with SDTV shows. Sometimes i find myself watching something on Discovery (or another HD channel) that i normally wouldn't simply b/c it looks SOOOO nice.

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Be an HD snob like me, only watch HD!

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troywellbuilt
Perhaps I'm missing something here. I got a nice Sony yesterday, my first widescreen. Most shows, aired in 4:3, need to be stretched to fill the screen, making everything too wide. To me, unwatchable.

Put it back to stretch/Justifird/Full, it takes about two days for your mind to get used to it. Once it does you won't even notice. Also you will damage your screen running with the black bars on either side all the time.
It doesn't stretch the whole picture, just the outer sides, the center is fine.

BGnR

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"Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You're beautiful!"
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

OK, so if I get HD programming (I plan on putting up an antenna this weekend) then when I watch say Conan O'Brien, the show will fill the screen rather than as last night have black bars on all sides? Sheesh, this stuff is getting complicated. Bring back my 19" black and white!

if the show is actually broadcast in HD, then yes, it will completely fill the screen.

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Thanks, all. Now I get it.

I have a 50" widescreen Sony A10. You should have a button called Wide on your remote, set it to Wide Mode, Wide Zoom and not just Zoom. If you have a Cable box set it to 16:9 and Normal, if you set the Box to Zoom or stretch it will stretch everything on the screen. Sony does an excellent job of stretching with Wide Mode, Wide Zoom, it only stretches to extreme edges and the center is left pretty much alone. After viewing in this mode for a few days you'll only notice it's been stretched at all when watching a show that has something scrolling across the screen, the extreme edges will move faster than the center. Naturally if watching an true HD program set it to Wide Mode, Full. Not all HD broadcast are in 16:9. It just depends on how it was filmed. I came home one day and the cable company had came out to do something and set the box to 16:9 zoom and it looked horrible, everyone had suddenly gotten fat.

My Cable box is set for TV Type: 16:9 Setting: Normal

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Grateful11

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BigGuynRusty
It doesn't stretch the whole picture, just the outer sides, the center is fine.

That is the absolute worst! Being visual and detail oriented, the distortion annoys the hell out of me. Sorry, but this is a deal-breaker in our house.

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incognegro

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BigGuynRusty
It doesn't stretch the whole picture, just the outer sides, the center is fine.

That is the absolute worst! Being visual and detail oriented, the distortion annoys the hell out of me. Sorry, but this is a deal-breaker in our house.

BGnR is correct, it doesn't distort the picture at all. Maybe in certain brands but it doesn't on my
Sony. I'm very particular about my TV viewing. It is definitely not the worst case scenario if
you have it set right.

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Grateful11

With mine , when I ran the autotune (autoscan) with a better AIR antenna, I got mutiple channels.
Conan is on channel 10, here.
I got:
10 --- 4:3
10-1 --- HD no bars
10-2 --- HDweather (but with black bars on the side, go figure).

Makes for a lot of button pushing.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2007 10:12AM by deckeda.

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incognegro

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BigGuynRusty
It doesn't stretch the whole picture, just the outer sides, the center is fine.

That is the absolute worst! Being visual and detail oriented, the distortion annoys the hell out of me. Sorry, but this is a deal-breaker in our house.

I am absolutely the same way, but if you relax and let go a bit, your mind will adjust.

BGnR
When I got my first WS TV, and used to bitch about that, my best buddy would just say, "Unclench".

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"Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You're beautiful!"
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

Go here and scroll down. It might help.

[www.cnet.com.au]

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Grateful11

We live near one of the test cities where all it's major stations have been transmitting in digital and HD in ever increasing amounts since the late 1990's.

Back in the fall of 2001, my dad bought DishTV HD receivers and our first HD rear projection TV.

The TV is a Sony 53" 4:3 screen. He chose that instead of the few widescreens available because he didn't like the way they stretched and distorted regular 4:3 programming. He figured that it was going to be some time before 16:9 broadcasts would predominate.

In HD or when we play widescreen DVDs, we only have black bars on the top and bottom. We don't even notice them. The picture is great playing DVDs and wonderful in HD. All 4:3 programming fills the entire screen.

We recently cleaned the projection lenses on the Sony (Something we do about every six months). Boy does that one little thing make it look new again.

Most of the time, the "old" Sony still looks better than the new Plasma (1040p) we got last September. We seldom watch the Plasma unless company is over. My dad is threatening to replace the Plasma with a 70" LCD DLP? or something like that. He says that that size will allow for a decent size 4:3 picture to be viewed without distortion with black bars on the side (which he doesn't mind).

Another thing we find goofy is TNT HD. Most of the time this is pseudo HD. Here they seem to keep the center half of the picture in it's proper perspective, but stretch each side to fill a 16:9 screen.

"Unclenching" has nothing to do with it.

Distortion is distortion, unacceptable on such a high-end, "improved" & expensive device.

If it's set correctly, and the picture is stretched at the edges, then the technology is failing.
I'd rather have black bars at the sides than have the image stretched.

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incognegro
"Unclenching" has nothing to do with it.

Distortion is distortion, unacceptable on such a high-end, "improved" & expensive device.

If it's set correctly, and the picture is stretched at the edges, then the technology is failing.
I'd rather have black bars at the sides than have the image stretched.

Do what you want..

BGnR

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"Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You're beautiful!"
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

Not to slight your choice any///

Why not?

It's only a personal choice, afterall.

The closest I get to HDTV is eyetv hybrid and an antenna. It's well worth watching in digital and HD. I get black bars on 4:3 and 16:9 (though I believe my ACD is 16:10) when HD is present. I don't care for the stretched look, though I *can* ignore it.

Will excessive "viewing" of the black bars damage an LCD set? I thought it would on a CRT, but an LCD too?

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

i do, thanks.
eventually TV manufacturers and content providers will get it right.

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Each to his own I guess but mine is not distorted. It is as clear on the sides as it is in the
center with the edges stretched. There's always going to be some 4:3 content out there
but it's slowly disappearing. Even some commercials are wide now. Better hope all
those 4:3 sets last a long, long time because I haven't seen a big screen 4:3 in stores in quite
some time. I've never seen TNT HD stretch shows on their own, your cable or satellite
provider or the box might be doing it but TNT HD 16:9 is absolutely clear and
unstretched on my set. We could discuss this forever but no one in our household likes
to see black bars on the sides and no one that visits can tell if it's stretched or not. My feeling
is your sets don't do a decent job of filling it in or you're settings are wrong. My friends
65" Mitsubishi also does an excellent job and he keeps all 4:3 shows stretched also. I
realize that signal strength, analog or digital signal and how a certain brand handles the
actual zooming all has to be taken into account. I think most peoples eyes concentrate
on the center of the screen and is probably why in almost a non issue for most of us. I'm
also fairly active over at AVSForums and if anyone wants really good A/V advice that's
the place to look.

Quotes from AVSForum about the Sony 50A10:

"I notice no real degredation when I switch from standard view to wide zoom, so that is good."

"Wide Zoom that only stetches the ends and keeps the middle as is. this looks real good to me."

"The wide zoom mode looks very good on 4:3 material. I don't really notice any degredation in picture quality."

"On wide zoom, I notice no stretching in any direction. On full mode I notice people get wider."

"The middle of the screen keeps everything in perspective."

"Wide zoom mode- After watching this more, I noticed that the outside edges are stretched more than the middle part, but you don't really notice it."

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Grateful11

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incognegro
i do, thanks.
eventually TV manufacturers and content providers will get it right.

They already have... in Europe, where all content is 16:9 digital and everyone has had a widescreen TV since '99. Regardless, the only stuff worth watching in the US is broadcast in 16:9 anyway.

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troywellbuilt
I got a nice Sony yesterday, my first widescreen....shows that air in widescreen don't fill the screen

Aspect ratio is one thing. High definition is another.

Assuming your widescreen TV is an HDTV, the program you were watching was a standard definition program presented in 16:9 aspect ratio.

Supply that shiny new TV with an HD signal and get what you paid for.

For all those saying that 4:3 content will be gone soon, can one of you please tell me how they are going to re-film the Honeymooners (or any classic TV) in 16:9?

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RAMd®d
Will excessive "viewing" of the black bars damage an LCD set? I thought it would on a CRT, but an LCD too?

Gray bars, I can understand. I'm wondering how black bars on any TV can harm it. Doesn't seem like burn-through, as the pixels or phosphors are shooting (if anything) black (is that off, or on-but-black?)

Does the blackness "stick" somehow, eventually not going away and causing the edges to darken?

people are just getting used to an inferior display mode.

people also get used to bland, processed food... that doesn't make it good food.

people also get used to bland, insipid TV shows... that doesn't make them good shows, either.

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Grateful11
Each to his own I guess but mine is not distorted. It is as clear on the sides as it is in the
center with the edges stretched.

You're misunderstanding the term distortion. It does not mean unclear. It means misproportioned.

By stretching the picture to 16:9, portions of the picture are made wider than they source was. It is like a circus mirror. The edges are stretched out to artificially fill the width of the screen with picture even though there is no data to actually go there.

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Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

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troywellbuilt
OK, so if I get HD programming (I plan on putting up an antenna this weekend) then when I watch say Conan O'Brien, the show will fill the screen rather than as last night have black bars on all sides?

Yep, not only will it fill the screen but it will knock your socks off!

You're right though. A widescreen HD TV without a widescreen HD signal makes no sense. Fortunately, all the prime time network programming which you can receive for free over-the-air is HD. Once you get that antenna, you will be very happy with your widescreen TV choice.

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sscutchen

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Grateful11
Each to his own I guess but mine is not distorted. It is as clear on the sides as it is in the
center with the edges stretched.

You're misunderstanding the term distortion. It does not mean unclear. It means misproportioned.

By stretching the picture to 16:9, portions of the picture are made wider than they source was. It is like a circus mirror. The edges are stretched out to artificially fill the width of the screen with picture even though there is no data to actually go there.

A set like mine can do this with nearly no perception that's its being done at all. I know
what it's doing and yes it is distorting the sides, bad choice of words on my part. Your
eyes will concentrate on the center 60% of the screen much the same as they do with any
aspect ratio. If you sit there and look at any set eventually you'll find some fault with any
of them. There is no perfect big screen, whether it be black levels, rainbow effect or silk
screen effect. I'll live with my tweaked and stretched set myself like most over at AVS.

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Grateful11

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SLM

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incognegro
i do, thanks.
eventually TV manufacturers and content providers will get it right.

They already have... in Europe, where all content is 16:9 digital and everyone has had a widescreen TV since '99. Regardless, the only stuff worth watching in the US is broadcast in 16:9 anyway.

None of the TVs in the hotel rooms in which I stayed during my month-long jaunt across Europe in 2003 were widescreen.

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It is what it is.

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deckeda

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RAMd®d
Will excessive "viewing" of the black bars damage an LCD set? I thought it would on a CRT, but an LCD too?

Gray bars, I can understand. I'm wondering how black bars on any TV can harm it. Doesn't seem like burn-through, as the pixels or phosphors are shooting (if anything) black (is that off, or on-but-black?)

Does the blackness "stick" somehow, eventually not going away and causing the edges to darken?

No, what happens (theoretically) is the non-black portion of the screen wear more quickly than the sections with the black bars. This is typically only a problem with plasma displays, and only with older ones -- displays of recent vintage (~the last 2-3 years) are pretty much immune from this, assuming normal usage.

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It is what it is.