Help! I'm a Home Theater newbie....

I purchased a Toshiba 61h70 HD-ready 4:3 Projection TV.

I have a Panasonic AU120 DVD Player that lets me select the TV ratio ...16:9 and 4:3, of cours
e....

SO.... when I use 16:9 ratio does that mean I m using the "stretch mode" or some kind of "semi-anamorphic" function?

The picture seems to be elongated vertically on most DVDs --smaller black bars but still there... but am I losing info from the sides? I can't really tell....

Does anyone else use this kind of set-up ? Any arguments pro or con using this ?

Thanks!

If you watch in 16x9 mode on a 4x3 tv the picture will be streched. Every thing, especially people, will be long and skinny. You need to either set your player back to 4x3 mode so it can downconvert the picture, or have a 16x9 tv or a 4x3 tv that can do the "anamorphic squeeze." Newer Sony Wegas all do this. They sqeeze each line, and make the picture appear at the actual size. This give a higher resolution than using a normal 4x3 mode and having the dvd player downconvert anamorphic transfers because the player does this by deleting every 4th line, or so rather than squeezing the lines.

The specs on my 55H70 Toshiba claim that it has a 16:9 mode but I don't see how or where? Any suggestions? See below.


VIDEO

HDTV Compatible (1080i)
Improved IDSC™ (Intelligent Digital Scan Conversion)
New Vector Progressive Scanning (480p)
New Advanced Video Noise Reduction
New 16:9 Mode with Vertical Compression
PowerFocus Plus CRTs
Multilinear Digital Focus
TheaterBright™ HD Screen with SLD
Red & Green Color Lens Filters
First Surface Mirror
Wide 160-Degree Horizontal Viewing Angle
3D Y/C Digital Comb Filter
Vertical Contour Correction
Advanced Velocity Scan Modulation
Dynamic Quadruple Focus
Fine White & Black Level Expander
Color Temperature Control (Warm/Medium/Cool)
Wide-Band Video Amplifier
Flesh Tone Correction & Color Detail Enhancer
Digital Video Noise Reduction

It seems as if the 16:9 mode with vertical compression is the "squeeze" that joshhinkle is referring to. I'm not familiar with the Toshibas, but that feature description is exactly what happens when the TV "squeezes" an anamorphic picture properly. The reason the picture looks elongated like that is because you are actually seeing MORE information than on a non-squeezed picture. On sets that don't do anamorphic squeezes (like mine...*sigh*), you lose like 25%-33% of the lines of resolution present in the picture of your DVD. They are "skipped over" in order to allow the picture to be seen in the proper ratio. Now, imagine if we were able to show ALL of those lines of information in the same amount of space as a non-squeezed picture...it'd probably look a lot better. Well, buck up, little trooper - it's possible - and it looks like your TV will do it (lucky bastage).

Enjoy your new TV - I'm extremely jealous!!!