I think it's called the aspect ratio. Anyway, my dad bought a 53 inch HDTV from panasonic and he is not happy with the fact that people's heads and bodies on a widescreen look shorter and wider than they actually are. we were watching PTI today and, on the screen, Wilbon's head looked thicker than it really is, and it looked shorter in height than it actually is. Is this something you have to just get used to with a widescreen? or Is there a way around this? Heck, my dad is strong considering returning it. We get the HDTV cable box on saturday. Now, do events broadcasted in HD have this problem? or do the people on the screen their actual size?
The aspect ratio for HD material is widescreen. There setting on the tv to control the picture. The setting it is on now stretches standard definition material to fill up the screen. You can change this so that it keeps its 4:3 aspect ratio but there will be black bars on the sides. Some may find this annoying but the image will not be distorted.
Yeah, you've got it on stretch mode. That's why everyone appears wider. Set the picture to 4:3 and everything will look the way it does on a regular TV(which just so happens to have a 4:3 aspect ratio). As far as the HD cable box is concerned, the picture will be in 16:9 whenever you watch high def programming, but unfortunately not much is available right now. The good news is anamorphic widescreen DVDs should look nice on the TV.
Remember, if you keep a widescreen TV in 4:3 aspect ratio for too long, it will cause burn in. Hence the reason to "get used" to a stretched out orange head and Wilbon.
Burn in is only a problem on certain types of HDTV's. You may want to check with the manufacter to be safe. Your tv may have a zoom mode that fills up the screen but still maintains the picture shape. The downside of this is it cuts out some of the material at the top and bottom of the picture.
I have an HDTV, 46'' Sony. You probably have it on "Full" mode, which is really distorted. I have mine set to "Wide Zoom" at all times. I find this to be the best. HD isn't distorted at all, and DVDs look good obviously.
This is what it says in the manual for the 4:3 option "This will display a 4:3 picture at its standard 4:3 size with gray side bars. (Not recommended for viewing 4:3 pictures as it may create a permanent image on screen if displayed for a long period of time.) first of all, why is pictures plural in the sentence in parenthesis. that confused me...secondly, if the TV would mess if you put it on the 4:3 option, then why even offer it as an option? The 4 options this TV has are 4:3 Full Zoom (as kilgore trout described) Just (where the the head and body isnt distorted if the person is in the middle of the screen but is distorted if they are in the side of the screen, for example if Michael Wilbon is on the screen only, then he would be located in the middle, where as if the camera shgot had both Kornheiser and Wilbon on the screen, each would be located on the side, and thus their heads and bodies would be distorted)
Burn-in only happens if you leave it in that mode for extended periods of time. Just switch modes(or watch a DVD) periodically to prevent any permanent damage.
