peter07

I have a Sony 32" non-HD TV with 16:9 enhancement. Exactly what does it do for the picture? Is this the function needed to watch anamoraphic widescreens?

renaldow

You want to use this feature. To use it properly you need to set your DVD player to WIDE or 16:9, instead of 4:3 letterbox. Put in an anamorphic DVD, turn on enhanced mode on the TV, sit back and enjoy a much higher resolution picture.

Instead of the DVD player letterboxing the movie, the TV is doing it for you. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is. (Upcoming line #'s are example only, I forget actual # of out put lines used.) This is what happens:

Say a DVD player outputs 480 lines of horizontal resolution. If the player is putting out the entire screen image (like it does when set to 4:3 Letterbox mode,) including the letterboxing, you've got 320 lines for the actual picture, 80 lines of black on the top and 80 lines of black on the bottom. Basically about 2/3rds of the output is picture, 1/3rd is black bar.

What 16:9 enhanced mode does is 'imitate' a widescreen TV. By setting the player to WIDE the player is not worrying about letterboxing and is outputting all 480 lines of resolution as movie. The enhanced mode on the TV takes care of the letterboxing, and you now are watching a movie with 1/3rd higher resolution than you were previously. On non-anamorphic titles don't use the enhanced mode, otherwise it will squash the picture.

Josh Z

Read Me

REL77

I did this with my sony, know that I read this and figured out how to do it, and it really does look better. I was watching with my GF and she even noticed and said how much better the TV looked and asked what I did.

peter07

I hear using the enhancement feature can damage the screen over the long term. Is this true?

Brian Shannon

No.

FantasticVSDoom

A question I have about this is that I set my DVD player to 16:9 output, and set my TV to 16:9 enhancement and when some DVD's play, I get "double black bars" where the TV has the black bars from the enhancement, and the black bars that are from the dvd are there as well. Is that supposed to happen? It doesnt happen with all DVDs, but a number of them. It is a better picture for sure, however it seems much smaller. I just wasnt sure if I was setting something wrong, or if that is what is supposed to happen.

jasonbird

I'll take a stab at this. Make sure the discs have an anamorphic
transfer. If it's just letterbox (and not anamorphic) you'll get the
tv giving you the 16 x 9 then the dvd showing a letterbox movie
inside the 16 x 9 frame. I'm betting in order to see these movies
correctly you'll want to turn off the enhancement and 16:9 for
correct viewing.

Am I right guys?

Jason

chipmac

Jason you're right if the image is distorted but if it's not then the double bars are from the black bars that you get when a movie's AR is greater than 1.78:1 and the bars from the black bars from the unused space on a 4:3 TV. These inner bars are going to be there on a 16:9 TV as well.

caligulathegod

Also, if you have a substantial difference in the value of the double black bars (the outer bars are much darker than the inner bars) then your brightness may be too high. Under "movie" mode, calibrate it with Video Essentials or similar disc (I say "movie" because you might not want it that dark for watching regular TV during the day in a brightly lit room-which you can watch under "standard" mode). The outer black bars are getting no scan at all so they are closer to a "true" black. The inner bars should come pretty close.

Just a suggestion. I have the same TV.

FantasticVSDoom

I got it now. Thanks for the clarification. I was getting frustrated because I was thinking I had something set wrong, but I couldnt figure it out.

peter07

So let me get this straight. Say for instance, I put in the Scarface DVD that has 2:35 anamorphic widescreen. Should I turn on the 16:9 enhancement on my TV or no or set my player to pan and scan?

Mr. Salty

Yes, if the DVD is anamorphic, turn on the 16:9 mode.

peter07

But the picture is just too small. So if I turn on the 16:9 mode for Scarface, what do I set the player for?

chipmac

If you're going to use the 16:9 enhancement feature of your TV you should always leave your DVD player set for 16:9 or widescreen TV output. Then if the DVD you're watching is 4:3 or not anamorphic you just don't turn on the 16:9 enhancement mode of the TV.
Do you mean the image is too small when you use this function? The picture should be the same size with it on or off. Do you mean that the image is in the correct aspect ratio and not distorted but is too small to view comfortably from your seating distance? If so then you have no choice but move your seat closer, or buy a larger TV if you want to watch movies made with this size AR correctly.

Josh H

The TV with enhanced mode does it differently as well. The DVD player down converts the anamorphic image by deleting every so many lines.

The TV in enhanced mode does it by slightly squishing every single line to make it fit, which is the main reason for the better clarity. You're getting all the lines.

That may have been what you said, I just wanted to put it in more laymans terms for the thread starter.

renaldow

That is what I said, and I thought it was laymen's terms. If your post clarifies it for others, than it shall be golden. Or something like that.

How 'bout this:

You see a better picture.

Works for us all?

Iron_Giant

Thanks for the info, I never knew what the technical data on the "Enhanced mode" was for TVs/DVD players.