When I'm watching Seinfeld re-runs and Wheel of Fortune I really don't worry about the "proper presentation."

OAR for 4:3 shows. I'll zoom in on letterboxed programming (still preserving OAR).

Prefer 4x3, but some things I do stretch/zoom on to fill the screen.

I'd still notice.

I started pillarboxing a couple of years ago and refuse to look back. My projection TV's pillars are even a dull gray and I don't mind.

I used stretch on my old CRT-RPTV to avoid burn in.

No I have a HD dish box and a DLP so I watch the shows 4:3 if necessary.

On the 32" LCD in the bedroom, I use stretch.

I can't believe the number of people in this thread who are ostensibly OAR fanatics that stretch 4:3 material to fit their widescreen TV.

I don't stretch, but I can see not caring on most of broadcast TV which is crap anyway.

The poll suggests that is a vocal minority, however.

As recent as last year, I would stretch a lot of 4x3 material on my Mitsu. Rear Projection CRT, because I found the gray side pillars to be extremely annoying. But now that both my new systems are LCD and utilize black side pillars, I happily watch all 4x3 material OAR.

stretched pictures drive me nuts. it's only a couple of clicks on the remote to sort out - this is even worse when tvs are set up this way in stores, as they invariably are. its as if they want to deliberately mislead the consumers...

For porn I zoom, everything else I stretch.

I bend very easily... oops I mean, same here

I stretch it, only because even on 4:3, it seems to look off to me. On my TV, i find when I have it stretched, it doesn't look too bad. Still trying to figure out exactly which mode I like best, however. Either way, I absolutely hate full screen films, and would never buy one unless it was my only option.

OAR?

I think there's actually some FCC requirement -- at least for places like bars and restaurants -- that a widescreen TV in their establishment has to be set to stretch 4:3 material. They can be fined otherwise.

Huh? Why? Link? Are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh?

Ditto. Wait ... don't knock the Wheel. It broadcasts in HD, so 16x9 is OAR.

Anyhoo, when I first bought the TV, I put it on stretch to prevent burn-in. Since I rarely watch SD material on TV, I didn't bother to switch the mode, so it's still on stretch mode. On the HDTV, I just tune to the HD channels about 95% of the time (~15 quality HD channels on D*).

If I'm watching regular broadcast television, I'll stretch the picture. If I'm watching a DVD that's 4:3, I tend to just keep on regular.

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but when I set my DVD player to up-convert, I can't set my TV to 4:3 or "narrow" mode. I have to lower the resolution to 480i in order to watch a DVD at it's 4:3 regular mode.

I'm not just having a laugh, I promise. Could be somebody's having a laugh on me, though.

Honestly, that's what I've heard, and it apparently has to do with commercials.

I just spent some time looking for articles to back me up but found none. I might've been had, and it wouldn't be the first time!

Ditto, but a different model TV.

Yeah, just might be.

How safe is it to watch a 2 hr movie with pillar boxes? I would want to see stuff in it's OAR, but not if it's going to cause burn in.

On what display?

bump

Our first 16x9 display was only 30" diagonal and we would watch over the air 4x3 material in the panorama stretch mode, but most 4x3 DVDs pillarboxed.

When we moved up to a 46" display, it was easier to watch all 4x3 material pillarboxed. I can't remember the last time I had to stretch anything.