TV display modes with HD player
12-07-07, 09:23 AM
#1
TV display modes with HD player
I've got a widescreen HD-ready TV with no HDMI inputs, and a Toshiba A3 connected via component video. The TV has four display settings: Normal/Standard (picture is centered with gray bars on the side), Full (picture is stretched to fill the screen), Zoom, and Wide Zoom. I usually watch TV in Wide Zoom and DVDs in Full.
With my old standard-def player, I was able to toggle between the four settings when watching any DVD. When I hooked up the A3, I noticed I cannot do this when watching an HD movie, but I can when watching a standard def movie. Also, when I put a standard def movie in, it comes up and says "1080i mode not available, will be displayed in 480p" or something close to that.
Now here's where it gets a little strange. My son has several Wiggles DVDs and most of them act just like any other standard def DVD, where I get the 480p message and I can toggle between the four TV display settings. However, on a couple of them, it does NOT give me the 480p message, it puts black bars on the sides (I want to say pillar-boxing, but I'm not sure if that is the correct term), and it will NOT let me toggle between any of the display settings, just like when I have an HD movie in. Can anyone tell me what is going on??? And why can't I change the display setting when I've got an HD movie in?
With my old standard-def player, I was able to toggle between the four settings when watching any DVD. When I hooked up the A3, I noticed I cannot do this when watching an HD movie, but I can when watching a standard def movie. Also, when I put a standard def movie in, it comes up and says "1080i mode not available, will be displayed in 480p" or something close to that.
Now here's where it gets a little strange. My son has several Wiggles DVDs and most of them act just like any other standard def DVD, where I get the 480p message and I can toggle between the four TV display settings. However, on a couple of them, it does NOT give me the 480p message, it puts black bars on the sides (I want to say pillar-boxing, but I'm not sure if that is the correct term), and it will NOT let me toggle between any of the display settings, just like when I have an HD movie in. Can anyone tell me what is going on??? And why can't I change the display setting when I've got an HD movie in?
12-07-07, 11:11 AM
#2
DVD Talk Legend
Some TVs won't let you distort or crop the picture with HD sources. It looks like yours is one of them, and there's nothing you can do about this. Well, you could set the player to output 480p, but then you'd be losing the advantage of the HD resolution.
I don't know about the Wiggles discs, but I'm guessing that some of them aren't copy protected for some reason, so the player is upscaling them to 16:9 HD and inserting the bars on the sides to preserve the aspect ratio. The ones that are protected are being sent to the TV as is, because players cannot upscale over component. So, the unprotected ones will work with the image altering modes on the set.
I don't know about the Wiggles discs, but I'm guessing that some of them aren't copy protected for some reason, so the player is upscaling them to 16:9 HD and inserting the bars on the sides to preserve the aspect ratio. The ones that are protected are being sent to the TV as is, because players cannot upscale over component. So, the unprotected ones will work with the image altering modes on the set.
