I don't know how anyone can watch those of you who like watching 4:3 or normal TV viewing stretched. It's totally stupid and I for one will never get a Widescreen TV just to watch something stretched.

I'm waiting for Screen size adjustment TV to watch 4:3, 16:9, and so on in their proper perspective without any black or grey bars. How can they do this? Well, make a TV box and have an LCD or PLASMA screen size rise up from the box to watch appropriate sized viewing. That'll be the ultimate TV to get.

from what Ive read it seems that your all saying its the grey bars that burn in not the black bars, is this correct? And how much is too much, I do watch quite a bit of tv but most of my movies are enhanced.

Already coming out dude :)
Check out the newest S&V. It should be coming out mid-year. And just to add... I will always watch in the OAR, and could care less about black/grey bars.

No, this is not true. Any static image on your screen for too long (black, colored, grey, etc...) will cause burn-in. Examples are watching 4:3 material, playing video games with a 'health bar', watching TV with the news symbol in the corner, etc...

If you look in your TV's manual, it tells you about this, and how often you should stop watching something on the screen to prevent burn-in.

Sorry for the confusion, I dont actually have a HDTV yet just research.

So what an average time for too much and will there ever be a resolution other than stretching or not viewing those formats at all

I never stretch anything. I like to think it's because I'm a purist about OAR, but I honestly can't say how I'd feel if the bars were grey (they're black on my 60" GrandWEGA / LCD screen). I'm sure grey or white bars would bug me and I understand the concerns about burn-in.

Also the physical design of the GrandWEGA is such that when you're viewing anything in 4:3 mode, the left and right edges of the picture line up with the stand/base of the TV, so it almost looks like a standard sized TV. Hard to explain but it works nicely for both widescreen and fullscreen viewing.

It may be strange but I play my 4:3 stuff on my 27" TV in the bedroom that is 4:3. I watch my widescreen movies on my widescreen TV.

but dont you think thats sort of a waste, the idea of a HDTV wasnt only meant for Widescreen movie viewing. If burn in and such is so much of an issue Ill wait until all local and national tv coverage is HD. Im not Going to spend 4-8 thousand dollars on a tv specifically for my movie viewing.

No. Never. To me thats just as bad as watching a P & S movie. But thats just me I can certainly see why some people would choose to do this.

My WS HDTV is the 'main' tv, we watch everything from widescreen movies [in OAR] to my little boy's Dora the Explorer and Wiggles, to playing video games on it.
Most 4:3 content I set the tv to show in 'Panorama' mode, just because I don't want to risk the burn-in. Panorama doesn't alter the image too much. Occasionally I'll put it in 'Widescreen,' which does stretch it a bit.
Depending on content and how long I plan on watching in a session, I'll try it in all the modes [WS, Panorama, and 4:3], and if WS or P really hoses the image, then I'll watch in 4:3. I never 'stretch', because that just looks horrible.

I've got a 17" widescreen LCD for watching TV/DVDs while on the treadmill.

4:3 stuff is very small on it so I use the nonlinear scaling every time. It's not great, but it's better than the alternative.

As an aside, for non-anamorphic widescreen I usually zoom it to fill the whole screen. You lose a little in terms of quality and cropping, but that's usually no big deal.

Tough to get old and have the eyes grow out of the lasik surgery.

This is not true, as steebo777 said, but I thought I'd elaborate: The grey bars are intended to reduce burn-in as compared to black bars. If one watches a variety of aspect ratio movies or other programming, including some 16:9, burn-in isn't a problem.

One can also reduce the risk of burn-in by adjusting the picture using Video Essentials, Avia, or a similar calibration DVD. New TVs tend to be shipped in "torch mode" so that they can be seen in a brightly lit showroom. This isn't the best for movie watching and it will cause more rapid burn-in on rear projection CRT TVs. (Some RPTVs intended for home theater use are not shipped in torch mode so it depends on which one you buy.)

If you properly adjust your RPTV and watch programming with a variety of aspect ratios, then burn-in shouldn't be an issue.

It's really funny to me what people will argue about on the internet sometimes. :)

Black vs Gray bars

If you have a choice, take what you're watching into account. If you're watching a very dark movie, use black. If it's a brighter outdoor type movie use gray. The idea is to try and match up the wear in the unused portion of the screen with what's being displayed in the used portion. If you were to use gray with a really dark horror movie, there's going to be more wear in those gray bars than there is in the movie portion. Just try and match it up as best you can.

Some of you might have dvd players that CAN do black bars for 4:3 and don't even know it. Go into the players display options and try some of the different options. You might get a pleasant surprise. I can make my JVC either create no bars on it's own or black bars if I choose. My Hitachi RPTV also has the option to display either black or gray (gray is the default).

And I will echo what others have said about proper calibration and getting your set out of torch mode. This is CRUCIAL for the life of your TV. Not to mention it will look better once you do it. If you got the bucks you can even go for a full ISF calibration by a proffesional which goes a lot farther than what you can do through the user menu. If you calibrate your set properly and vary your viewing habits burn in shouldn't be a concern at all.

As per the original question, I stretch cable TV 100% of the time. HDTV broadcasts are already 16x9 so no worries there. I only have a couple of 4:3 DVDs. One of them is Happy Gilmore which is only available in P&S as far as I know. Sometimes I stretch it, sometimes I don't. I can't watch it in OAR no matter what I do so I don't really have a preference for that one. The only other one I have is Eyes Wide Shut. I don't stretch this one. I want to see Nicole Kidman in her Original Asspect Ratio. :p

Not strange to me... I do the same thing 99% of the time (have a 36" 4X3 in my den with a smaller 5.1 system for regular TV watching and 4X3 material).

Actually, isn't this DVD open matte, not pan and scan? If so, you should be able to use the "zoom" function on your TV and watch it in its proper ratio. (Resolution won't be as good, of course, but at least it'll be displayed properly.) This is assuming it is open matte, of course...

I'm not sure what it is. Sometimes I stretch it, sometimes I zoom it, sometimes I leave it alone. When it comes to goofy comedies I don't really care too much.

The huge vast majority of my 4:3 viewing are TV shows that are not HDTV material anyway so viewing them on a 4:3 TV is not a waste at all.

I have very few older 4:3 movies and all those are also not anamorphic or really HD quality anyway so again I do not see viewing them on a 4:3 TV as being a waste.

I only spent 2K on my TV so viewing only movies is not a real issue. I make my brother who watches a bunch of junk regular TV shows watch them in a zoom mode so as to prevent burnin.

Doesn't anybody use Zoom?

I've had a 34" Panasonic 16:9 for about a year (direct view, not rear projection) and was told (by someone in a forum like this, I think) that the possibility of burn-in, once calibrated with Avia, would be nil.

But recently, I noticed what MIGHT be burn-in: on a 1:85 movie, a bright desert landscape made it easy to see the sides of the screen were a few shades darker...

I freaked out. So ever since then, I've been watching all 4:3 material via my RP91's ZOOM mode (because stretched looks awful)... and, surprise surprise, it's not that bad.

There's no noticeable loss of resolution. And I can shift the picture up a few pixels to read subtitles: Just watched La Strada, and dare I say it actually looked better in widescreen.

Bottom line is, I've always screamed about watching in OAR -- but after buying a widescreen TV, I've learned to live with a cropped picture. (I still wish burn-in wasn't a factor though, as I hate always wondering if I'm missing something)

You shouldn't have to worry about burn in without a direct view unless you have the contrast all the way up and you leave static images up for days on end. You may have possibly misidentified whatever you saw. See if you can find a way to put up a pure gray screen and see if anything is there.