TV Widescreen puzzle

What is the source for these movies? Are you watching them from DVD? VHS? Cable?

If watching DVD, you should set the wide mode to "Full". On Sony TV's, the four modes are "Normal, Full, Zoom, and Wide Zoom". I use wide zoom for viewing standard content and full for DVD. The other two aren't worth using.

HD content takes over the set and won't allow you to change the wide mode, that is the best.

If you are getting stuff chopped off the left (and likely the right) you are using a zoom mode. Another thing to check is the setup of the DVD player. Make sure it knows the display it is connected to is 16:9 format. By default they are set to 4:3 and this is incorrect for your new set.

This is one of the things I was hoping his answer would lead to. When I bought my widescreen I had to reset the DVD player, VCR and Cable box to let all 3 of them know that they were connected to a widescreen TV now.

I had a play around with the sky box, it was set to 4:3 I changed it to 16:9 hopefully it might work now.

I can say hand on heart I have never had a TV engineer thats ever done a job right.

Thanks everbody.

If they are not broadcasting in HDTV, it's unlikely you are received anything but a 4:3 image or sometimes a letterboxed image (usually TCM) -- you can zoom it, stretch it, but all it will do is adjust the image to fit the screenm. If you are not set up with an HDTV tuner (satellite and cable companies now provide these on a month basis), even a broadcast of a film that is 16:9 will not be received that way. Letterboxed films should have the black bands on the top and bottom and would show the full credits depending on the channel broadcasting the movie. 4:3 movies that were wide screen are pan-and-scan versions of the film and it doesn't matter if you have a wide screen TV if you aren't receiving it in HD. Trouble is, on the 1080i digital HD input on my TV, there's only two adjustments and when I try to watch a wide screen film on, say, Turner Classic Movies, it's cropped (a smaller image that has a black border around the image). 4:3 images are black banded on the left and right of the screen. I can expand it but it will make everyone look fatter. When I watch TCM, I will usually watch it through my DMR (DVR) recorder and I can adjust it anyway I want. I usually use the "stretch" mode which expands the left and right hand edges on 4:3 old movies and the full screen on wide screen letterboxed. Showtime will often still send out (often still somewhat cropped) a Panavision or Super Panavision in HD and it will be letterboxed on a 16:9 screen. Confusing? Yep.

It is correct that one has to configure their DVD player to play back movies in 16:9 and most movies are now already formatted to show 235:1 movies cropped to fit a 16:9 screen. One exception has been my copy of "Titanic" which is leterboxed in Super Panavision (as I remember 275:1) and is letterboxed on my screen. Unfortunatley, this means a loss of detail as one is only using about half of the resolution so the picture is reduced to barely better than videotape.

BTW, especially on TNT hidef, if the credits are close to the edge of the screen, when they crop a 235:1 I have seen that parts of some lettering are cut off. This is when the filmmaker's graphic designer decides the credits should appear on the extreme edges. Most channels will show the credits only in the full wide ration which will also letterbox on a 16:9 wide screen. When the movie action begins, they return to the cropped 16:9.

Thank you lightwizard for your very full answer, oddly enough I actually understand some of it, as you say it's confusing.

Especially when broadcasters may process a film in some odd way, including the sound. I have problems with some settings for Dolby Pro Logic and Digital 5.1 because the engineers have sometimes decided on putting the central voices in some kind of echo chamber. I have to turn off the DSP (Digital Spatial Presence) enchancement or play around with its settings. The important thing to remember is that unless you are receiving an HD signal, you won't be getting a 16:9 format. Letterbox is best viewed on the standard or normal setting but a 4:3 format will be expanded in all directions losing some of the top and bottom of the image. Zoom, of course, will lose even more of the sides of the image. The stretch setting will not lose the top and bottom but will expand the left and right edges. When a face of body gets close to the edges of the screen, they will appear to need Jenny Craig.

BTW, if you are watching the new Kirstie Alley sitcom on Showtime in the 4:3 stretch format and she drifts towards the sides of the screen she will appear larger than...well...Jupiter.

In HDTV 16:9, she just looks fat.

On my sony there is also a horizontal adjustment to center the picture. If your TV has this and it is always one side that is getting chopped off you may want to try this.

My Mitsubishi has that feature but it can't be accessed by the user. In their standard digital broadcast, our Channel 5 and 7 (ABC) expand the image so there's a small left hand border, otherwise the other channels are evenly bordered with a dark band on both sides so one would need it on the remote (good for SONY!). As the broadcasters go all HDTV, this will, of course, dissapear. I was watching "A Chorus Line" briefly this morning on VOOM satellite in HD and it was still letterboxed to give the full image of the dancers. Not as severly as on a 4:3 screen, of course.

As this is a bridge between one standarization and a new one, we'll all have to put up with sometimes peculiar engineer or technician decisions on how they are sending out the picture. When I first got HDTV, PBS was cropped on all sides and when I called the cable company I found out that was not their doing. They were sending out the picture the station was broadcast in HD. As I said, I now watch TCM through my DMR because it's standard digital picture is cropped on all sides on my HD input.

I can find out the service codes if you are interested, I work for an appliance and electronics store and know a bunch of the service guys.

I am getting HD on Wed. I am bypassing a box altogether, my TV has a cablecard slot in the back to allow the TV to receive all the channels and it has the optical out also, can't wait.

I can switch all channels over to my DMR and watch them as standard digital pictures with all the picture ratio adjustments. Expand is the only option on the HDTV input and all it does is either fill the screen at the top and bottom which makes everyone look thinner. More often it expands left to right cutting off some of the picture and making everyone look fatter.

That would be great if it's not a lot of trouble. Trouble also if it takes too much time just to adjust the picture for a couple of channels that are expanding the standard digital picture when it's not HD. Like I stated, the CBS Channel 2 as well as nearly all other channels including satellite that are in standard digital is a centered 4:3 and I don't usually take the time to switch inputs to the DMR so I can stretch the picture to fit.

I can't quite figure out what you mean by bypassing the box? You mean the cable box?

My VOOM satellite box does have opitical outputs for the 5.1 DolbyDigital
which I have hooked into my Yamaha THX receiver. Sounds better than theater sound. I've also hooked in two front presence speakers which create depth behind the screen. Sounds unbelievable on concerts.

I get so much HD that I rarely watch much standard stuff anymore. If I do, I just watch the digital channel and suffer the black bars on the sides. The picture is still better.

Sony's last HD receiver, the HD300, has the ability to stretch 720p/1080i signals, so if you have a signal like I'm talking about, you can get rid of the sidebars. My HD200 cannot do that.

What I'm wondering is how DirecTV is going to squeeze all this upcoming HD content over its limited bandwidth. New satellites perhaps?

I meant the cablebox (I live in a highrise that doesn't allow dishes) There is a slot on the back for a card and comcast just started offering them. It allows you to get the full complement of channels without using a cable box.

How old is the tv? IS it a tube, projection, DLP, LCD? It's no problem at all. I used to know how to do it but I moved from installing custom audio to doing custom kitchens. I have been out of the A/V game for a while but if I remember correctly it is pretty simple.

VOOM has no problem with the nearly forty HDTV channels they broadcast. Not sure about 100% HD but on a good night, they have their ten movies channels, their ten special interest channels, Encore, HBO (2, East and West), Showtime (2, East and West), The Movie Channel, CineMax, Encore, Starz and at least three of the major networks all in HD.

I'm watchin the VOOM Lab channel right now which is all video art accompanied by music. It is wild.