The 16x9 enhanced mode with anamorphic DVDs looks really nice...I feel like I'm looking at an HDTV....

Does anybody knows how it works? Just out of curiosity...Are the scanlines removed??

When a widescreen movie is anamorphically enhanced, the actual movie itself appears to be squeezed horizontally. On a 16:9 display, this is unsqueezed to the correct ratio, and you have the benefit of more picture information per area, and a nice widescreen image. (You can view the squeezed version by telling your DVD player that you have a 16:9 dsiplay.)

On a 4:3 set, however, the player doesn't want to show a squeezed picture - everything would look tall and thin. So, the player transforms the image into a letterboxed widescreen image by removing every 4th line (or some similar method), called downconversion, and adding black bars on the top and bottom. The result is a proper ratio and a good picture, but often this downconversion causes small image problems (obviously! it's deleting 1/4 of the picture information).

The Sony TV essentially allows you to change the aspect ratio that the TV is displaying. So what you're actually doing is watching the anamorphically squeezed image, but the TV is resizing itself so that the image appears correctly (rather than unqueezing horizontally, the electron gun squeezes the image vertically, achieving a similar effect). It looks exactly like a letterboxed movie, but instead of the player downconverting the image, you're seeing the full resolution.

Anyone wish to correct or clarify?

{I guess the short answer is that you are adjusting the electron gun to scan a different size (16:9 instead of 4:3) of the screen so you can see the full resolution of the DVD at the proper aspect ratio. This can be performed on any TV, but usually requires changing complex values in the TVs service menu. Sony just made it easier to do.}

[This message has been edited by DigIt (edited November 13, 2000).]

Does anyone know where i can find out how to do it on a sony wega?? can it also be done on the 20' wega? Thanks

Thanks, DigIt, for that well written, detailed explanation. I feel more enlightened http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

bakiller-
Hit the "Menu" button on your remote, go to the second-to-last menu item from the right (I forget what it was- "options"??). You'll see a "16x9 Enhanced Mode: NO" option. Toggle it to YES. I think the 20" WEGA has it, not sure though.

Wait did you say 20 foot WEGA? Wow... http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif

digit, i agree. i did a little research and found the same explanation. i did not like "4th line" deletion method; which causes this weird distortion on some movies. But, the vertical squeeze actually does a good job at shrinking the lines so that each line looks smaller. it also boosts the color and brightness a little. Go to a store and switch it to 16:9 enhanced and look at the grays, you will see a difference.

as for the 20 foot sony http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/wink.gif, i thought i saw that with the Playstation 9 :P (PS9 was just a spoof commercial by sony)