Ok on a Widescreen TV what does regular Televison look like? Black bars on the side?

Or gray, or stretched out (which looks much better than you would think), or zoomed so that the top and bottom is chopped off.

Basically what X said. There are about 4-5 different modes you can switch between for viewing various formats. Different manufacturers call them different things, but for viewing traditional 4:3 material you can view it with bars on the side, zoomed (cutting off the top & bottom), or stretched.
Stretched will leave the center of the screen untouched, but slowy stretched as you get closer to the edges.
I watch all my regular TV in the stretched mode and it is barely noticeable.

I agree with movieman
 

Stretched mode is really only noticable when panning side to side. Don't let that alter your opinion of 16:9. It's the only way to watch TV.

Re: I agree with movieman
 

Uh, yeah, if you're rich. I don't have that kind of money... I'm pushing it with my 4:3 VVEGA. :)

If your Wega is a newer one, it has a 16x9 mode for anamorphic DVD's, so in my opinion, you've got the best of both worlds. I watch about 50/50 4x3 and 16x9, so for me a 4x3 display with a 16x9 mode makes perfect sense...

Rob

Darn, I bought my Wega a couple of years ago and so it doesn't have the anamorphic squeeze trick. I didn't buy a widescreen because I still watch a lot of 4:3 TV. But if I knew 4:3 TV didn't look too bad on widescreen TVs then I would have done that instead.

I personally can't stand watching 4x3 on my friend's 16x9 set. You have the choice of grey bars on the side or Pan&Scan like zoom and stretch modes. Not suitable for me. My next TV will most likely be a Sony 53HS30, that has a 53" 4x3 mode and a 48" 16x9 mode. My current TV is an older Sony 35", which I created a 16x9 mode in the service menu. Not simple, but definitely worth the effort. Some of the newers sets can be set into 16x9 mode much simpler. See this link:

http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/usefu...menu_sony.html

Rob

I'm taking a long hard look at available and upcoming LCD widescreen sets. They all have black bars on the side and not gray (I think). The problem is, the manufacturers aren't exactly my idea of reliable companies. RCA, hmmm. Samsung, oy!

one thing to consider is that the "stretch" modes vary quite a bit in quality from each manufactuer and the results are also influenced by the video content. i have a Sharp and find that the stretch works great on some content but for other programs is a bit anoying.

i vary which mode i use accordingly, sometimes using stretch, sometimes zoom (cuts off a bit of the image), and sometimes the gray bars. you get used to it. and frankly you're going to have bars with either a 4:3 or 16:9 set. the question is do you want bars with cable or bars with DVD's. only you can answer that question.

Until Broadcast TV goes widescreen, 16x9 TVS will have a hard time becoming "popular" due to the problems mentioned above.

<b>Thunderball</b>, i guess i don't see the above as problems. they are simply artifacts of showing images of different aspect ratios on a device with a fixed aspect ratio. no matter what format tv you have, you will always have bars from time to time.

btw: there are already quite a few "broadcast" shows in 16:9. IMO the key issue is price.