For those that have this player for region free and PAL movies, etc..

I am having some trouble understanding I think the 4:3 Letter Box option and 16x9 option on the player itself.
My Sony TV has the 16x9 Widescreen option set to auto so all my movies R1 that I play on my Sony DVD player utilize the sharp, true Widescreen format automatically when I put in a DVD that is recorded as such (you see it instantly revert at DVD menu from full screen to 16x9 when the DVD plays)

I set the 16x9 option on the Philips and an R1 release that I put in (Swingers) played as if it were in Full Screen. Now this is recorded in 16x9 Wide so it should have played it fine. It didn't. I then set the Philips to the 4:3 Letter Box option while the Sony TV was still set to Auto and it played it in the true 16x9 aspect.

Then I tried some other DVD's, non-reg and PAL and they only would play 16x9 when I set the TV 16x9 option to "On" and the Philips to 16x9, it would not do the enhancing automatically like it should.

I know this is a bit confusing and I am not sure if I am explaining correctly, but can someone help me alleviate this problem?? Thanks in advance.

Which version of Swingers do you own? The first release wasn't anamorphic but the second one labeled as Collector's Series is. If when you say it played full screen you mean that the image actually filled the screen then something is wrong. Both versions should actually look the same on a 4:3 TV because they have the same aspect ratio. The only difference would be the anamorphic version would kick in the 16:9 mode on the TV. Now if you're saying that the image is filling the screen with no black bars and the image is distorted then that means the TV is not kicking into 16:9 mode probably because the disc isn't flagged properly.

If you have a TV with a 16:9 widescreen mode, you should leave the DVD player set to 16:9 at all times. When you encounter a non-anamorphic disc like the original copy of Swingers, you'd turn off the 16:9 mode on the TV, but leave the DVD player alone.

If you TV is 4:3, you should have your player set as 4:3 Letterbox.

If your TV is 16:9, then set your player at 16:9 .

Yes but he has a 4:3 TV with a 16:9 anamorphic mode so he needs to set the player as if he has a 16:9 TV and not a 4:3 TV.

scott1598,

I have experienced the same problem. I also have a 727 and a Sony Wega 4:3 TV. It seems that the Sony does not recognize the anamorphic signal and the picture appeared stretched.

When setting the 727 to letterbox mode, I can watch the movie in proper aspect ratio, but the additional resolution from the "16x9 squeeze mode" is lost.

So far, I still can't get pass this problem. If any one knows a fix, please help.

I have the same problem with my AIWA dvd player and my Sony KV32HS510 32" WEGA. To view a movie in 16:9 "squeeze" I have to set the DVD player to 16:9 and manually turn the TV's 16:9 mode from "AUTO" to "ON". This is actually quite annoying as the automatic mode is one of the reasons I bought this television. I'm thinking of upgrading my DVD player to one that will work (I need a progressive scan player anyway).