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First HDTV, few questions

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First HDTV, few questions

Old 06-08-13, 09:27 PM
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First HDTV, few questions

Picked up my first HDTV, at long last. It was one of Best Buy's "deals of the day," an LED 39 inch Westinghouse. Probably nothing high-end as far as these things go, but it was marked down about $120, and it sure beats my SD CRT TV (theoretically, anyway). It's a fun enough toy, but not having acquired my HDMI cables yet (I ordered them from Amazon to offset the surprisingly overpriced ones I found, hopefully they'll be here soon. Damn shipping.), it sort of feels like driving a Ferrari in first gear and isn't quite as impressive as I'd kind of hoped for, but hey, I shouldn't have expected reference quality for $300. Besides which, it'll probably look a hell of a lot better once I get the HDMI cables. Surprisingly, after replacing my trusty Phillips DVP-5982 with a (much) cheaper model I got at work dirt cheap because I wanted something I could make region-free easily, I found my new one has an HDMI hookup, as does my DVR. The TV has two, so that works out nicely, or it will until I get an Apple TV or a Roku box or something. But what am I missing as regards the widescreen format? When I set my DVD player for anamorphic mode, it does the same "stretching" effect it did on my old 4X3? I thought this was the purpose of 16X9? I can put it in letterbox mode and set the TV to "fit the screen," but it still require a bit of fiddling when I watch something fullscreen like my Netflix The Wire DVDs. I'm going to try to get a Blu-Ray player soon, but the pricing problems on the region-free issue are cumbersome. Have I missed something? Even when watching the HD versions of the cable channels we get, perhaps it's my imagination, but it looks like the edges are cropped. I have a lot of stuff recorded in SD, so naturally I'll have to deal with the dreaded square-in-the-middle-of-the-rectangle for SD, but am I missing something as regards HD? Even on my old CRT, it showed the HD channels with the widescreen bars. Or am I just dense?
Old 06-08-13, 10:02 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

There should be a setting on your DVD player to change it 16x9, I know with mine I have to start the player without a DVD and hit the menu button. Also had to do something like this for my cable box.
Old 06-08-13, 10:05 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

WRT to the stretching and cropping, it will sync up better with an HD connection. Don't worry about that until you have the HDMI hooked up. (I'm assuming you are using yellow video wires)
Old 06-10-13, 03:25 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Originally Posted by bobert3
There should be a setting on your DVD player to change it 16x9, I know with mine I have to start the player without a DVD and hit the menu button. Also had to do something like this for my cable box.
It does have that setting, but when I put it on 16x9 mode, it just stretches it out like it used to on my old TV.

Originally Posted by Spiky
WRT to the stretching and cropping, it will sync up better with an HD connection. Don't worry about that until you have the HDMI hooked up. (I'm assuming you are using yellow video wires)
Yeah, RCA jacks. Amazon are taking their time getting that HDMI cable here!
Old 06-10-13, 05:21 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Once you get the hdmi cable it will change. I had the same issue with a Vizio. With componant cables it would have black bars all around. Once I put in the hdmi cable the picture was normal as a widescreen with no bars.
Old 06-12-13, 03:44 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

FINALLY got my damn overpriced HDMI cables. TV looks good in 1080i (apparently no one broadcasts 1080p), but the DVD player doesn't offer a huge improvement. Given that it was $50, it was probably too much to expect upscaling to be impressive, but hey, not exactly knocking me out. And only two HDMI inputs, so I'll have to keep switching it once I get a streaming gizmo. And I've never been good at setting the brightness, color, etc for some reason, even on my old sets.

Last edited by hanshotfirst1138; 05-18-14 at 05:27 PM.
Old 06-12-13, 04:03 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Yeah, it's still a standard def DVD player. Not much you can do. Now that you have an HDTV, you're going to quickly realize that DVD's look like ass.

I'd recommend getting a Blu Ray player rather than another streaming device. That way you'll not only be able to get the most out of your TV by playing 1080p Blu Ray discs, but most of them offer almost as many streaming options as a stand alone device. For about the same price. Plus you won't need more than two HDMI inputs.
Old 06-12-13, 06:13 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Like I said, the biggest issue for me regarding the Blu-Ray player problem has always been the region-free issue. I could just unlock the DVD player with keystrokes, apparently the manufacture have made it nightmarishly more difficult to do on Blu-Ray players. You know, I bend over backwards to buy things legally. I really do. I don't subscribe to the "all information wants to be free" ethos. I don't. I'm more than happy to pay more if the disc contains the features I want. I want to support what I love. But if their intention is to make sure that BitTorrent looks pretty appealing, then mission accomplished! Jerkwads. I'm watching my DVDs of The Wire, but I was under the assumption that the 4X3 picture would be displayed with the black bars on the sides, but it seem to be stretching the picture. Or am I missing something. Anyway, as regard region free Blu-Ray, I have seen a fair daily inexpensive players kick around eBay, but the majority of corresponding reviews on other website suggest you get what you pay for, and I can't just pick one up at work and unlock it. My house broadcasts wifi, but getting player that region free and still updatable will be difficult enough, much less one that also streams and such. To be fair to DVD, my friend's PS3, back when it actually worked, did upscale DVDs pretty beautifully. They looked damn pretty. I thought about getting a PS3, but of course I'm betting that makes the region free issue more complicated than ever.
Old 06-12-13, 09:29 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

My HDMI cables finally came, when I use it with my DVD player, it doesn't upscale particularly well, but it's cheap, so that's to be expected. But why is it that when I play my 1.33:1 DVDs on it, they fill the full screen. I'm not sure why they don't have the vertical rather than horizontal bars that display the square full screen image. I've changed the setting from 16X9 to 4X3 and back, but it doesn't seem to be fixing it.
Old 06-12-13, 10:07 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

On my tv, a few years old, mind you, there is a button labeled Pix Shape. Pressing this button will stretch 4:3 video to fill the screen. Pressing it again will keep the 4:3 stretched to the side but will expand the picture from top to bottom, effectively zooming in the 4:3 video, making it pan and scan. Pressing the button again will keep the 4:3 video's aspect ratio, showing black bars on the sides. Surely your tv has something similar.
Old 06-13-13, 09:01 AM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Yes, first set the DVDp to 16:9 to match your TV. Then check the TV zoom settings.
Old 06-13-13, 02:39 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Yeah, I just had to get into the DVD menu itself rather than just one the that switched around the the thing from 4X3 to 16X9. Now, I'm off to scour eBay and Google for that damn region-free player.
Old 07-22-13, 11:43 AM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Have the player at long last, new question as regards sound. My HDTV has a pair on built in speakers on that back, and a pseudo-surround sound thing (SRS or something, and a "raw" feed, I have no idea what the technical stuff means). Sometimes, It sounds pretty badass and simulates surround sound pretty well, but at other times, it's sort of difficult to hear the dialogue through what would be the center channel if I had a surroundsound system. Given the setup of my bedroom, to say nothing of its small size, I really couldn't put the surround sound set up in here. Is there a regular, inexpensive, stereo-type system that I could use your something? In my basement, I have an old cassette stereo with RCA jacks that I use to connect my DVD player that I moved down there since I got the Blu-ray player up here, it works reasonably well, but it's decidedly old-school. What exactly are my options? Or am I just better off with the HDMI cable and the TV, and I'm not adjusting the settings correctly?
Old 07-25-13, 05:34 AM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

For a small room I have had good luck with the ZVOX, it is easy to setup and use and significantly improves audio quality.

http://www.amazon.com/ZVOX-555-Low-P...&keywords=zvox

Thread here:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-home-th...nd-system.html

Again this is NOT a surround sound system but works well to improve audio in a small room setup and the unit installs nicely under the TV. Other options would be a soundbar or small stereo receiver and a pair of bookshelf speakers.
Old 07-25-13, 08:16 AM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

You got a "deal" for HDTV and are just starting to tip toe into Hi Def and Blu ray. Why not just get a $100 decent Blu ray player ( may be with WiFi / Ethernet ) enjoy the large HD content out there and worry about region free later !!
Old 07-28-13, 08:39 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

I wound up getting a Sony BDP-S3100 Blu-Ray region-free player for just under $200. Nothing fancy, but it has some features I'm still figuring out and does its job. I'm watching Walter Hill's The Driver, and it looks like a grainy well-worn VHS release. The reviews of the disc online are actually quite positive, I know I'm used to HD now, but that can't be all there is to it. Have I adjusted the settings wrong or something? Everything is currently set to defaults that came with the player.

EDIT: I'm thinking this has to do with my "user" custom settings on my HDTV, too much contrast or sharpness or something. I'm thinking I messed up THOSE settings.

Last edited by hanshotfirst1138; 07-29-13 at 10:06 PM.
Old 07-29-13, 07:17 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Where did you get the player ?
Old 07-29-13, 09:49 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Originally Posted by Spottedfeather
Where did you get the player ?
eBay.
Old 07-30-13, 02:37 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

I've read that it's region free, but just for dvds. Is it region free for blu-ray, too ?

Last edited by Spottedfeather; 07-30-13 at 02:43 PM.
Old 07-30-13, 04:15 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Originally Posted by Spottedfeather
I've read that it's region free, but just for dvds. Is it region free for blu-ray, too ?
This one is, I bought it modded.
Old 09-06-13, 12:55 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

Alright, this is mildly irritating. For some reason when I watch films, I find that for some reason, when signs and such come up onscreen, even when the subtitles are turned off, it subtitles subway signs, etc. When I was watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the deleted scenes reintegrated back into the film on DVD also had locked French subtitles for some reason. Could this have to do with the settings of my player?
Old 09-07-13, 12:31 AM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

The Airheads dvd is sort of like that. Even if you don't have the subtitles on, they aren't on during the movie except for one single line at the very end of the movie. You have to go to the dvd's menu and turn them off...even if you already have them turned off.
Old 10-25-13, 11:43 PM
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OK, rented two older movies on regular DVD from the local library, Meet Me In St. Louis and Modern Times. When I put in MT, even the menu was cropped and displayed the cursor in the wrong place. So was the film, which should 1.33. So I put in MMISL and found the same. Changed some settings around in the player, and seemed to get MMISL properly pillarboxed, and tried another 4:3 DVD which I have, and got the same result, which is good. But when I put MT back in, now it's cropped in its weird way again. Are there some other settings which I have to adjust? You'd think it'd be universal for all 4:3 movies, what am I doing wrong here?
Old 10-26-13, 07:52 PM
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Re: First HDTV, few questions

It sounds as if the dvds are wonky. On my tv, if I watch 4:3 tv shows (before the 2000s mainly) and movies before the 50s, I just hit the pixel size button which changes from 4:3 to 16:9 and switch to whatever format the show or movie I'm watching is. If I watch a non anamorphic movie or show, I hit that same button and make the ratio Zoom1, which enlarges the widescreen picture to fill the screen, which cuts off the black bars.
Old 11-03-13, 10:09 PM
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OK, when I watch it on my computer with Windows Media Player, it displays it in the proper 4:3 ratio, but it's cropped on my 4:3 TV in the basement and my 16:9 TV in my bedroom. Dafaq?

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