I searched for a topic on this, but was unsuccessful. Forgive me if this has been discussed before on here. If so, please point me in the right direction if possible.

I'm sort of an A/V newb. I recently purchased a new 61'' Samsung Widescreen HDTV. So far I have an HD-DVR and about a 6 year old jWIN All-Regions DVD player hooked up to this TV. Now here's my problem -

I have some fullscreen DVD's (all SD) in my collection (for example: Weeds - Season 1, Jonny Quest - Season 1, History of the Green Bay Packers, etc) that I would really love to watch on this 61'' badboy. Now, I can change the aspect ratio on the TV from widescreen to 4:3, but for some reason my DVD player has no option for this. Thus, all of the fullscreen DVD's I play are stretched to fit the TV. I have spent over 2-3 hours total going thru every available option on my DVD player and TV and I have come to the conclusion that I simply need a newer DVD player that will provide me the option of changing the aspect ratio on my DVD player so that I can watch my fullscreen DVD's w/o getting the ugly sretch effect. When I watch HDTV channels on the TV, it automatically adjusts to show the correct aspect ratio and fills the entire screen w/o a stretch. Then when I change to a SD channel, the TV re-configures to 4:3 and gives me the black bars on either side of the image to compensate for the non HD broadcast. I would like to have that same option in a DVD player. I would like to be able to see my fullscreen DVD's with these black bars (I like to refer to this as "vertical letterbox") on either side of the image and have no stretching effect whatsoever.

I'm wondering if someone can point me in the right direction here. I have no desire to upgrade to HD-DVD or BluRay anytime soon (or at least until the format war is officially over) and would simply like some recommendations on a DVD player that has the ability I described above. I am trying to stay under or no more than $150. Any recommendations or help my fellow DVDTalkers can provide would be most appreciative.

Thanks in advance.

Well, you sound like a good candidate for the Oppo DVD player.

www.oppodigital.com

However, in your price range, you really should be thinking the Toshiba A2.

Except that the A2 is well out of his price range.

Sony has upconverting players for $150 or less. Will upconverted to 1080i through HDMI. The player has a 4:3 default setting. If set to normal the player generates the side bars for 4:3 programs, so you have side bars even though the tv is set to "full, stretch, etc." If you watch a dvd with 4:3 trailers,menus,copy warning,etc. they will be 4:3 but the movie will play 16x9 even though the tv is on the same setting the entire time. Or, 4:3 tv shows that have 16x9 menus, etc. , the menus will be 16x9 but the program will 4:3. You get the idea.

If you're going to spend $150, I'd recommend the Oppo over the Sony players. Besides having a great picture, they're multiregion and they eliminate the layer pause.

It's been $199 recently, and with 5 free dvds, $50 over could be a consideration.

I'm really digging the Oppo players and their specs, but a great case has been made for the A2. I'm definitely going to have to weight the pros and cons against my budget and what I think I need for the time being. Thanks for the tips - I appreciate it.

Another vote for the Oppo over Sony, if you decide to go that route.

I have the $150 Oppo player and it's been the best picture quality DVD player I've owned.

I'm sort of confused: Is the TV not able to apply the 4:3 mode on the DVD's 480p/480i video signal? You would run the DVD player in 4:3 mode (not 16x9), and the TV would also need to be in the 4:3 mode. The stretching comes from the TV taking those 480 lines from the DVD player and displaying it in the full mode (16x9 aspect ratio), but the TV should be able to slap some side bars on both sides of the image if you choose the 4:3 mode on it.

Yeah, I tried that because it was my first thought as well. I set the TV to 4:3 and turned on the DVD player only to have it override the altered TV aspect ratio of 4:3 and become widescreen. How this is possible when the TV is set to 4:3 is beyond confusing to me.

How is the DVD player connected to the TV? Is it S-video, or composite (single yellow RCA), or component (3 RCA green, red, blue)?

composite (single yellow RCA w/ red & white audio cords on same string)

Recently, yes, but that deal is over. If a similar one comes up, great, but it's not available for that price right now.

You're using the worst possible connection. If you're watching on a 61" HDTV, you seriously need to upgrade your connection.

That's why. Electronics often assume that composite (possibly Svideo) cannot transfer a 16:9 signal so they revert to 4:3. And the stretch is probably the default setting. Upgrade to whatever you can.

I had the Oppo970 $149 model and it was the best DVD player that I owned.

That is, until I bought the Toshiba D2.

Alright, I'm sold.

I just bought the OPPO DV-970 from Amazon for $149.99 w/ free super saver shipping. It even comes w/ a 6ft HDMI cord. I read all of the reviews and went through the specs and decided this player is what I needed. Hopefully this will solve my fullscreen DVD problem; and according to the reviews I've read, as well as the players specs - it should. I'll come back and post a quick review once I receive it and hook it all up.

Thanks again for the recommendation.

While I still firmly believe you should gone with the A2, I understand that you are not yet ready to get into HD-DVD and had a set price range.

That said, you just bought an excellent player that you will be very happy with

anyone using the phillips dvp5982? i picked one up to test and see how the image compared to component and at 1080P output the picture was pretty noticeably crisper with less artifacts. ended up taking it back for the moment but am considering picking it up again, anyone try it out ?

I have the DVP 5960, and while it is a great DVD player, I found its upscaling quality to be quite terrible. Not only does it annoyingly change the aspect ratio by vertically squeezing the picture (i.e. the bars are thicker than they should be) and stretches 4:3 material to fill the screen by default, but in 720p mode the picture looks extremely blocky on my Westinghouse, to the point of being unwatchable. The 1080i image looks better, but is even more vertically squeezed than at 720p.
I have gone back to 480p output via component, which gives me the correct aspect ratio and better image quality than 720p mode.
I have no idea if those issues got fixed in the 5982, but it may be something to research before shelling out your $$.99.

Phillips has never actually tried to make a quality picture come out of one of their players. They sell on price. And to a few because of the region-free possibilities.

Yep, I bought my Philips DVP-642 because it lets me play just about anything I throw at it... for $50.

I'm upgrading from the trusty old Sony WEGA XBR 36" behemoth in my living room to the Vizio VM60P 60" plasma this fall, for the same price I paid for the Sony! When that day arrives, so will my new Oppo. Then, when prices are down across the board AND disc availability gets better, I'll look at an HD or BR player. Ain't technology grand?

Hello everyone,

I have an exact opposite problem with my DVD player and TV. I just bought a new 1080P LCD TV (Samsung LN-T4665F) and connected my almost 10 year old DVD player (Sony DVPS560D) When I played my widescreen (16:9) DVDs, everything is coming out horizontally stretched.

Is this because my DVD player is set to display on 4:3 screen only? I couldn't find setting or option to change the display ratio.

Is it time to change my DVD player?

Thank You!

Go into the set up menu on your DVD player and change the output to 16:9. On some players you have to make sure there is no disc or no disc playing when you change the format.

I was interested in the Vizio VM60P also until I read that the settings for the picture isn't independent for each imput. That kind of sucks since I usually have different adjustments for each imput.