What's the best DVD Player for a 4:3 TV than minimizes letterboxing?
 

I have an older 32" 4:3 analog Sony TV and I'm looking for the best reasonably priced (sub $200) DVD player that will play all of the different video formats (2.35:1, 1.85:1, 4:3, and 4:3 Pan&Scan) with minimal letterboxing. I'm a newbie - but I believe that the feature I am looking for is ZOOM. I purchased a Sony DVD player a few days ago (DVP-NS315) that I believe does not have zoom and would like to quickly replace it. Thanks

There's an easier and much cheaper fix. Turn off your lights. The black bars melt into the darkness.

The black bars are your friend. They are put there for a reason. Learn to watch the movie, not the black bars.

Most of us here don't want to remove letterboxing (the picture on your 32" should easily be big enough), but are here some DVD players with zoom:

Panasonic RV-32
Toshiba SD-1800

Once you zoom the picture, it degrades to where it is no better than VHS. If you don't want widescreen, stick with VHS.

Went for the Toshiba SD1800
 

Thanks for the Toshiba SD1800 tip. Picked it up today for $99 at Best Buy and the Zoom feature works great. One or two clicks on the zoom button looked better than letterbox - in my opinion (not quite full screen).

For reference, before I purchased the Toshiba - I purchased a JVC XVS502SL that also had a zoom button. The JVC had a great picture - but the Zoom setting window did not turn off (at least I couldn't figure out how to turn it off).

Who knew that this DVD thing was so complicated. I thought that you just stuck one in the player and pressed PLAY.

I can almost hear the collective groan from the people reading this.

And ignorance triumphs over education again.

there are also many movies that have a full screen version
there would be no bars, and any possible distortion from the zoom would not be there

Ignorance... yup.

I'm looking for an HDTV 55" TV, but I want black and white. No need for color, since I use DVDs, but prefer full screen zoom with crappy resolution. Can anyone refer me to someone that sells large TVs that are B&W? I'm also looking for a home theatre receiver, but I don't need DD5.1 or DTS. I am looking for mono 1.0. Can anyone help?

Wow... I needed a good chuckle. This worked nicely.

I must be one of those "glass is half empty" people. I have never thought of them as bars. I have always thought of them as "absence of picture." When you turn on your TV without video input, you see a black screen. We don't think of it as being filled with a BLACK BOX. So, why do we think of them as black bars?

my sig is as relevant as ever, it seems....

I'll give everybody three guesses at Joe's last name. :lol: