PAL Scaling Help!
 

Two months ago, I purchased a Toshiba all-region DVD player from 220- electronics, because the site indicated that it had no difficulty with the appropriate scaling of widescreen PAL discs.

I purchased two discs to check the machine: Shogun Assassin (Region 0 PAL) , and Santa Sangre (Region 2 PAL). I am using a standard television as my viewing monitor.

When I attempted to play the Shogun Assassin DVD the picture was "squashed"--there are only a few inches of picture and the image is vertically compressed. If I go to the setup menu of the player, and change the aspect ratio of the TV to "widescreen" (which is incorrect given my monitor) the image looks right.

With the Santa Sangre disc, the Anchor Bay logo and menu are compressed when my aspect ratio is set up properly, but the feature then comes on and looks fine.

Any idea what is going on?

Thanks

It is possible the Shogun Assassin is not a 16x9 dvd and the Santa Sangre menu is not 16x9 friendly.

Sorry, not sure I understand--I am using a standard ratio television, not a widescreen TV.

Also Shogun Assassin is an anamorphic widescreen DVD, as is Santa Sangre.

Shogun Assassin is not an anamorphic ws dvd.

According to Totaldvd.com:
the widescreen version only shows the correct ratio when played anamorphically, otherwise the image is unwatchably squashed. Picture quality is insulting, looking as bad as a second generation VHS, and the stereo soundtrack is dubbed and often unintelligible.