Scaling to 16:9 for "old" (non-anamorphic) DVDs?
 

I did a search and looked through the FAQ and found nothing, I apologize in advance if this has been beaten to death before...

That said, I'm getting sick of watching stretched and scrunched movies on my widescreen TV. I have a 16x9 RCA HDTV (read: not high-end) that has 3 built-in aspect ratios of which 2 are useful and one is beyond comprehension. Letting the TV do the work for me is beyond it's ability.

Are there any DVD players (or other devices) that will give me a variety of options for the aspect ratio of the DVD playback? I can't be the only person experiencing this problem.

It could be I don't know the correct vocabulary to find the feature I want. :)

Price target: under $900.

Thanks for the help!

Bummer. My Mitsubishi has EXPAND mode which restores non-anamorphic DVDs to the correct ratio so they are no longer squishy. I am guessing your only alternative is 4:3 mode, gray bars on the side, black bars top and bottom. Picture will be smaller but ratio should be correct. I've not heard of any DVD players that have multiple playback options like you suggest.

You need to buy the Panasonic RP91 DVD player! It has built-in scaling of non-Anamorphic DVD's that is done automaticaly when detected. Even if the DVD is improperly flagged you can go into manual mode and tell the player to scale anyways to get the correct aspect ratio! I have a Pioneer 58: 16x9 HDTV that locks in full and the scaling feature is a must for me because no HDTV's zoom modes can give you a better looking picture from a non-Anamorphic DVD then the scaled version form the RP91! THe RP 91 can be had for around $450 online.

a toshiba sd-4700 or sd-5700 will do the job.

i have one and use the scaling "zoom" for non-anamorphic discs on my 65" mitsu hd set. the toshiba player has a zoom with more than enough incriments (sp?) to handle any aspect ratio that doesn't look right on your set.

it also can shrink an image down to compensate for te overscan on your tv, thus displayng the edges of the image you wouldn't otherwise see.

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the great advice folks. I'm going shopping!

JVC also has some new players that do the scaling...

The Panasonic RP91 seems to get the highest reviews when it comes to this however... It's a great machine and usually runs in the < $500 range. Panasonics are also chroma bug (don't ask if you don't know or you'll start to notice it) free.

I will have to agree with phaseturner on this one. I own the toshiba-4700, and have also owned the Panny RP-91, and used both on my WS TV. Although I would have to agree that I found the RP-91 slightly superior, I stuck with the Toshiba because of the price(it can be had for less than $200), and because it is just an awesome player, a total workhorse IMO. To awnser your question about Non-Animorphic DVDs, I used to use my TV (Hitachi HDTV WS 43') to scale them correctly, I have found that the Toshiba player does this much more effectivley(in smaller incriments) So buy IT! BUY IT NOW!!

I have the JVC XV-s65, and in the set-up mode it asks to choose between 4:3 or 16:9 which I assume refers to the playback set. I'm in the market for a HD tv, but I wonder how it will work for my DVD player. I wouldn't mind blackbar on the top and bottom, but on the side would be silly.