There seems to be no consistent answer to this, but I thought I would try here... I purchased an LCD widescreen not long ago. All is fine - except when I try to watch DVDs in 4:3 (those intended to be watched in that ratio), it automatically stretches the damn thing no matter what I set the DVD player to. The TV gives me several ratio options when watching cable, but not when viewing DVDs. Is there any way around this? I don't mind the black bars on the side. I'm just not a fan of stretching. What I can't seem to figure out is whether or not this is more likely a problem with my DVD player or the TV itself. -D.
you set your dvd player (as well as xbox, sky box and whatever) to tell it what shape tv you have. All of these things should detect what ratio the video is and add bars etc accordingly. It's the settings on your tv that 'force' the video to fit so i would say the problem is in the tv. mine has a 'zoom' button which switches between.... 16:9 (widesceen vid looks normal, 4:3 vid is stretched) 4:3 (widescreen vid is sqaushed, 4:3 vid looks normal) auto (it knows what is being played and does what it thinks is best) panorama (zooms in on 4:3 vid to fill the whole screen but you loose a bit of the top and bottom, you only notice on stuff that has graphocs on screen like a football match clock etc which might go off screen) If you have told your dvd players etc you have a widescreen then it should be fine as all widescreen tv's have these options.
you think? cool, thanks. just had a look at the question again and i'm not sure i answered it though, all i can think of is that there must be a way of changing the ratio on the tv. i don't understand whay the tv would give you these options and then take them away when playing dvd's, how would the tv know it was playing a dvd anyway? Is it the fact that it is a dvd playing, or is it when you use a certain input? i know mine takes away options like 'adjust screen position' when using certain inputs. Try swapping inputs, maybe use the composite for dvd instead of scart etc, and see if it does the same thing. (only to test it though obviously as composite is crap)
Thanks, guys. Actually, you hit my problem right on the head. When I use my component video input, it restricts my choices. It's fine if I use the other inputs (though I haven't tried S-Video yet). Right now I'm waiting on a replacement remote on my main DVD player, so I can finally get into the system menu and switch it over to 16:9. Thanks again for your help. I guess my question now is... supposing it continues to restrict my chioces when using component video, which input is next best? S-video, I assume? -D.
Bullseye! yeah, s-vid is the next best or scart (as long as it's RGB scart) you know, i'm not sure which one of those is the best but they are both good enough, and a lot better than composite. what I can't understand is why it restricts ratio options when using component. Surely they must realise that component is the connection of choice for dvd, and it's with dvd you are most likely to want these ratio options. I think though that once you get your remote and tell your dvd player you have a 16:9 tv, you'll be fine using your component leads as once the dvd knows you have widescreen, it will add black bars to the sides of 4:3 video as not to stretch it. I know what you mean about hating 'stretching'. It's even worse for games. You should see the King Kong game in widescreen (one of the few games that supports 16:9 properly) it's pure class!
