Page 1 of My Widescreen is not widescreen? Please help

Hi,
I have just bought a Matsui 28" widescreen tv. I have set my dvd player to 16:1, when I try it on the TV there is always about an inch of black on top and bottom when I run it on 4:1 (tv setting), and all of the other settings including 16:1 crop about an inch of the sides. I thought that this was not on widescreen tv`s??
Can someone please let me know if this is meant to be or I have just but a c*** TV.

Thanks

Gavin

I think you mean 16:9 and 4:3. If your dvd player is in 16:9 mode and your tv is in widescreen (not zoom), you should noy lose any of the picture. You may have black bars top and bottom, depending on the aspect ratio of the disc, and whether or not it is anamorphic.

Films are not shot in 16:9 as you may have noticed at the cinema. Thats why you still get black bars

One example, I have a DVD and on the back it states that the aspect ratio is 16:9, I then checked that my DVD play was set-up to display widescreen instead of pan/scan or zoom. Now if I set my TV to 16:9 I still get black borders and lose some of the image.
I don`t think this is right as I am having to run it in 4:3 to get the whole image.

Black borders top and bottom?
Do you have an "auto" setting for the aspect ratio on the TV?

When you say the DVD is 16:9, you don`t mean the "enhanced for widescreen" logo for anamorphic, which as 16:9 in it even when the film is 1:2.35? What film and region is it?
When you run it in 4:3, presumeably you get borders all round.

Films encoded with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 will still show black bars at the top and bottom of your television weather or not it is widescreen, this is so the original aspect ratio is preserved.

Films with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, however, will fill the whole of your widescreen TV, but black bars at the top and bottom would be visible on a standard sized TV, again, this is so that the original aspect ratio is preserved.

Of course, both these ratios are still shown on none 16:9 Anamorphic DVDs, which means the video will be in the 4:3 (1.33:1) Letterbox format or the "16:9 Letterbox" format.

So, DVDs which state "Anamorphic Widescreen", "16:9 Enhanced" or simply "16:9" as some do, will show correctly on your widescreen TV, as long as your DVD player and TV are set to 16:9.

Regards,
Adam.

This item was edited on Sunday, 30th June 2002, 12:11

Ok, the black boarders top and bottom are ok, but what I am not happy with is the is the fact that the screen is stretched, well it is kind of hard to describe but it looks something like:
___
) (
------
when viewing anything on sky. I have tried changing the settings on the sky box from normal to widescreen to widescreen with letterbox but nothing helps. When eathcing a non WS program on sky there are no black boarders but the image is distorted.

Any help?
Please?

In the `Picture Settings` menu on the Sky EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) set `Picture Format` to 16:9 and `Scart Control` to ON.

Your TV should also have several viewing modes, for example: 4:3, 16:9, Zoom, Cinema and Auto etc. What you need to do, is to set your TV to it`s "Auto" mode, this is so the TV will automatically switch from 16:9 to 4:3, depending on the format of the content being presented.

If you do that it should work correctly.

You also said that an inch of the picture is missing off each side of the image. When using RGB scart, unfortunately, the picture seems to be offset to the left, but don`t worry about it, everyone has to live with this problem.

Regards,
Adam.

This item was edited on Sunday, 30th June 2002, 21:12

I have tried this, but the "stretchinhg" appears on normal channals i.e. 1-5 and these are not going through sky.
I do not have a msnual so cannot check for any "advanced" settings (not that there would be any).
My only other option is to take the tv back to currys but it was their last one which would leave me without a TV for about 2 weeks as they would no doubt send it off and forget about it.

Thanks

Gavin

You say "normal channels not going through Sky", so i`m assuming you mean the 5 terrestrial channels, which are NOT bradcast in widescreen. To view BBC 1. BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 in widescreen, you must watch them through Sky.

Regards,
Adam.