Thunderball

Perhaps someone who has a better brain than I can help a brother out

Ok, 50" Sony Grand WEGA LCD.

Has Normal, Full, Zoom, and Wide Zoom modes.

When I watch cable TV in "full" mode(non HD broadcasts that is)everything looks stretched out. Not always noticeable, but people and things look a bit too chunky. 1 too many McDonald's Meals I suppose. I dont' mind watching them with the black bars on the side, I've gotten used to it.

When I play video games(hoooked with S and Component) the full mode looks awesome. Nothing gets stretched out and I dont' have any visibility problems or miss things.

So why do video games look fine "stretched" but cable doesnt?

tonyc3742

Is your TV doing the stretching on the cable, or your cable box? My cable box, TV, and DVD player all do the 'stretch' mode, and they all look a little bit different.
Also, what games are you playing? It's possible that the video games are getting just as stretched, but because they're 'unrealistic' to begin with, you dont' notice it, whereas with a TV program, it's easier to see a human person getting a little wider.
I play my games on either Widescreen or Panorama, and I generally don't notice anything, especially when I get into a game.

thriftyrocker

I have the 55" version of the Sony LCD RP. Just like yours, "Full" will stretch it to fit the 16:9 ratio, and people look fatter. It is less noticeable when I play games, but it is still noticeable. For example, even on Madden, while playing the game, the players look OK in "Full", but when the video snippets in the title screen are shown, it's a lot more obvious. You know what McNabb's face looks like, so it looks weird when he's too wide, but an avatar with no. 5 on the back looks OK.

There shouldn't be a burn in problem with LCD RPs, so I always use "Normal" mode for 4:3 TV. Hopefully more and more of TV will be simulcast in HD. Lost and Alias was great last night, the whole night in HD.

GoVegan

I typically play games stretched out, unless it looks bad, but most of the time it seems to look fine. Hopefully Mario doesn't mind that when I'm playing Paper Mario it looks like he put on a few pounds. I can't stand the look of 4:3 television shows in full mode, though. I think it is just a matter of your brain knowing what people are supposed to look like, but not being bothered by more cartoony things being the wrong shape.

It would be nice if more games would include a widescreen option. Of the few Gamecube games I have (15?) I think only 5 of them can put out a 16:9 signal and a few of those were cheapies I picked up exclusively because of the widescreen option.

jessecrx

I have a 30 inch sony hd monitor and some games like Halo and Call of Duty look fine in FULL 16x9 mode but when I play games like Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for Xbox it really distorts the image....especially when I am playing SF2 on Xbox Live....so I have to change it to NORMAL mode with bars on the sides. It does support 480p but I have to play it on NORMAL screen mode for it to look right.

Steve Phillips

Full mode is for anamorphic widescreen DVDs. Why anyone would watch 4X3 material using this mode is beyond me. If they must stretch, why not use one of the other modes which would fill the screen but not distort it to that extent.