Ronin008

Hi,

I'm in the market for a tv, though I'm not yet sure on what format I'd like to adopt. The letterbox of 16:9 Widescreen movies on a regular 4:3 isn't a big problem; not a problem at all really, but I'd like to consider getting a widescreen CRT or projection tv due to my increasing library of DVDs.

1) How will regular television programs and sporting events look on a WD display?

2) Would a CRT based (WEGA Trinitron) display be better than a Projection display for all around performance, i.e regular program viewing, DVDs, gaming, etc.?

For CRT, I will get no larger than 32" for mobility considerations and practicality. Projection will be the smallest available on the market. I'm not a fan of huge 50" + displays, seems excessive.

Thanks in advance,
-R

Josh Z

When watching 4:3 content on a 16:9 display you have a few options:

- Watch the material in its original aspect ratio with gray bars on the sides. A little distracting, but you get used to it.
- Stretch the picture sideways to fill the screen. Looks horrible.
- Use an 'intelligent' stretch mode, which stretches the picture more at the edges than in the center. Some people claim to not be bothered by this. Personally, it feels to me like looking through a fisheye lens.

William69

does not look bad in panaramic mode on my Philips.

dtsmovieguy

Can someone post some REAL pictures of a TV showing a 4:3 image on a 16:9 tv? and it stretch mode too?

Roy28

The "intelligent" stretch modes are better on some tv's than on others. Some do produce a very distracting fishbowl effect like you mentioned, but on some sets the stretch is barely noticeable. I have a 65" widescreen Toshiba and honestly can't see the effects of the stretch at all. When I was shopping for the set I looked at other brands in the store and the stretch effect was terrible - like looking through a peephole. The quality of the stretch mode is the reason I chose the Toshiba.

Both Toshiba and The Pioneer Elite's have good stretch modes, but the Pioneer's cost a bit more.

chipmac

Something that is often overlooked when looking at stretch modes is the amount of overscan the set has. My Mits OOB had almost 10% overscan on the left and right sides. After using Avia and going in and adjusting the geometry to the proper 4.5% the stretch modes are certainly tolerable now. So my point is that when you compare sets in the showroom this is something that needs to be considered and if you plan on an ISF cal or tweaking it yourself it can be easliy fixed.

Josh Z

I still can't stomach intentionally distorting the image shape just for the sake of filling the screen. This is no different than pan & scan.

Movie_Man

I would argue that it is very different.
In the stretch mode, you're not arbitrarily hacking off 1/3 - 1/2 of the image that is gone forever. The contents of the image are still the same. Nothing is added or deleted.

uteotw

I use the "panoramic" viewing mode on my 47" Samsung and it works very well for 4:3 viewing, and I much prefer it to the grey bars. It just doesn't bother me in the slightest--mainly because I only use it to watch a TV show, and I'm not nearly as concerned about a slight (if not wholly unnoticeable) image distortion on something like King of Queens as I am about losing some of the actual picture on a movie like Lord of the Rings.
In short, find what you like and go with it, but definitely go with the WS TV!

Joshic

My Sony 34XBR800 widescreen HDTV has a Wide Zoom mode, which is akin to the "intelligent" stretch modes described by others in this thread. It cuts off a tiny bit of the image on the top and bottom of the picture, and stretches the sides - more on the edge of the screen than the center.

I use this stretch mode for 99% of my 4:3 viewing. It looks very natural. Sometimes, I will watch a 4:3 program in Full mode - where it stretches the sides without cropping the top and bottom of the picture. But the Full mode makes images look distorted, so I don't use it very much.

Steve Phillips

Side bars are black on widescreen CRT sets; (including mine) not gray as with the RPTVs I've seen. Much less distracting.

Phil I

I have 3 regular 4:3 TV broadcast images @ my Page 1 website** - just after I received my Toshiba 50H81 TV - taken Aug. 2, 2001, ... w/less than 10-12 hours of use - consider the pic's right out of the box.

I did ...

- Performed Video Essentials Calibration after a couple of hours of use

- Used Touch Focus and the consumer menu driven 9-pt. Convergence option.

====

The next webpage digital pic's (linked) were taken about 2-weeks later, after I worked up the courage to perform the Service MODE 56-pt. Convergence Process and verified VE w/AVIA = 0% Red Push

Toshiba has 3 Zoom options*** and except for the 3 TV broadcast digital pic's on Page 1 (of 5), the rest of the 100+ photo's are from different DVD's widescreen movies.

***Zoom options:

Theater 1 = Slight stretch sides, center virtually no stretch.

Theater 2 = Zooms without any stretching: Used for non-anamorphic widescreen sources like the TV Show Enterprise & any widescreen non-anamorphic DVD's.

Theater 3 = Zooms all over the place - generally don't use.


**NOTE: Because my website is 'FREE', hosted by GeoCities, if too many HT enthusiasts visit, GeoCities will shut it down for an hour or so because it exceeded the specified 'freebie' Data Transfer Rate. Sorry about that, just bookmark it and visit my site an hour later or when everyone has gone to bed!

Phil

DJ_Longfellow

I guess I can tolerate cable TV in regular mode on my 55" Mits. Yes, people looked stretched, but i'm not anal about my cable braodcasting.....oh well, my 2 cents

danol

2 of my 3 DVD changers (300 + 1) are progressive scan CX-875P, since my HDTV is locked by my self in the *full" format
I see 4:3 matereal as a bit zoomed but *no* 'fat' faces are seen.


I can say that as I just watched the 1951 industry standard of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" last night, there were *no* fat faces seen at all! It could be the Sony brand prgressive scan that does this, but I don't know. I like it, I also have a Bee-Gees: One Night Only HBO special from early 1997, that does the same thing 'no' fat faces!


P.S. No screen burn in, when all material is watched in full format of HDTV, I have a RCA F38310 2 years plus from floor model purchase May 2, 2001. Odometer reading from Service Menu 17,761 hours, acessed 1:00 EST 5/04/03.