Side Bars or Stretched Image?
 

What format do you prefer to watch TV in? Side bars or stretched? Also, do the side bars REALLY become an issue with concern to burning in. I don't want movies to have black bars on the side.

Well my rear projection tv is 7 years old now and I have problems with burn in, so I stretch my cable signal. Will be getting new tv soon though...

I find that the 'ghost' edge of the side bars is quite distracting when watching 16:9 content after a 4:3 image was on there, so I stretch it.

To my eye, a stretched image is unwatchable. I would rather risk the ever so slight chance of burn in than suffer a stretched image. I'm constantly surprised by how many people watch TV this way though.

I also wonder why people don't crop the image if they just must have their screen filled. You lose a little at top & bottom but at least it doesn't distort what's there.

Stretch mine for the most part, not that bad once your used to it.

Not as HD literate as many around here, but I have DirecTV (SD) for regular TV viewing and just set the DirecTV receiver to 16x9, and I don't notice any distortion of the image on my 32" Samsung LCD. Maybe its due to the screen size or maybe its just me?

I have DirecTV (SD) too so I will try that. My TV is a 50" Plasma though, but I'm hoping for your results; Full screen SD TV with little, to no, distortion.
How do you adjust the DirecTV ratio to 16:9 or anything else? I went through many of the menu option and didn't see anything

I stretch it. My tv and dvd player do a pretty good job of "normalizing" the stretching so it's rarely even noticeable. The TV has a "Panorama" mode which stretches the edges more.
I don't crop because there's a difference between having the full image, stretched a little, and only 20-40% of the image zoomed in or cropped.

Anything supposed to be 1:33 I watch with side bars
Letterboxed films that are not 16x9 I stretch to fill sides and vertically to eliminate stretching. Pretty much what a 16x9 transfer would look like. except quality. Same with 1:85 films that are fullscreen.
I cannot stand to watch 2:35 films that are fullscreen.

Sometimes I watch 4x3 material on my 16x9 TVs with sidebars, and sometimes I watch it with just the edges stretched to fill in the screen. I never stretch the whole image though (too distorted).

I watch everything in it's OAR. So if it's 1:33 then side bars

Sidebars...OAR is the only way to rock it.
The stretching just doesn't look right to my eye.

Depends on what I'm watching. Some things look better stretched than others. Usually, I watch with bars.

Side bars all the way.

OAR.

I have never understood this notion that every pixel of a screen is supposed to contain an image, if the image is 4x3 then that is what it is

Slight Burn-in? Yuo must not have that problem then. There is nothing more distracting than having dis-colored ghosting on the sides of your 16:9 screen when trying to watch a movie.

At first glance I thought this topic was "Side boob or stretch marks"

OAR, side bars.
Having bars on the side doesn't bother me any more than having them on top and bottom. I don't want to watch something stretched no matter how good of a job the tv may do it.

Exactly my reason I stated above.

God, I would never buy a TV that suffers from burn in. OAR 100%.

O A R

Stretched. When DVD first came out I bought a lot of full screen titles so that they'd fill my screen. Now that I have a widescreen television I need to stretch them so that my screen is still filled.

To be honest I haven't. I wouldn't really buy a TV that forced me to distort what I watch in order to function normally. But it seems like that is always the #1 reason given for stretching. Though it seems relatively rare with today's sets under normal viewing conditions.

Do all you stretchers also zoom 2:35 movies to eliminate the top & bottom bars? Isn't the risk just as great for horizontal burn in?

You so funny!

I can't stand to look at a stretched image. It amazes me people actually watch TV like that.

I have no issues with burn in on either of my 16 x 9 sets, just set your contrast at a normal level (not torch mode) and you'll be fine.

I agree with a previous poster, though: Why aren't people worried about burn in from the top and bottom bars when watching 2:35 to 1 movies, yet they panic at the thought of black side bars? It doesn't make any sense.