stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

first of all, I've ALWAYS bought widescreen/letterboxed DVDs, as I'm an advocate of seeing a film the way the filmmakers wanted me to see it.

Anyway...my new TV is a widescreen, with an option that lets you change the aspect ratio between:

16:9 standard
16:9 zoom
4:3 standard
4:3 expanded
4:3 zoom1
4:3 zoom2

Now...when I put in a widescreen DVD....say, Kill Bill...the 16:9 standard is both letterboxed and looking a little squeezed. The best of my choices seem to the 4:3 expanded, as I see most of the picture (only a little bit of the right and left edges are cut off) and it fills more of the screen than the 16:9 standard. All the other choices cut off too much of the available frame for my liking.

I guess because most films I'm looking at on DVD seem to have been shot in 2.35:1,, I'm going to see the letterboxing even on my wide screen. The only time I won't is if the film haappened to have been shot in 16:9 - which very few films are.

Am I right? Or am I missing something easy that will fill up my big, beautiful screen???

[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

I'm a little confused to what you mean by, [ QUOTE ]
the 16:9 standard is both letterboxed and looking a little squeezed

[/ QUOTE ]

but the 16:9 standard should be the correct one.

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm a little confused to what you mean by, [ QUOTE ]
the 16:9 standard is both letterboxed and looking a little squeezed

[/ QUOTE ]

but the 16:9 standard should be the correct one.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I put in a letterboxed DVD and my TV is set to 16:9 standard, I can see the whole frame, but the picture is still letterboxed - probably because most films are not shot in 16:9, but 2.35:1 or more....

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

I have the same exact question I just never thought to ask OOT.

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

you are right: very few DVD's are exactly 16:9, even if they are "widescreen".

you will still get letterboxing on most DVD's, and the determinant is the DVD native aspect ratio. you can fiddle with your TV settings, but it really depends on the DVD you watch...

this was a dissapointment for me when I first watched DVD's on my widescreen monitor. I automatically assumed the picture would fill up the whole screen. alas, I was dissapointed.

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

a dvd is progressive but still not true HD. You are only getting it at 480p. When BluRay dvd's come out (also on the ps3) you will have true HD quality on your tv. Do you have a progressive scan DVD player? The quality of your DVD player (the decoder on it) will really start to show on a nice HDTV.

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

Make sure the DVD player is set to know that the TV is 16:9. Then the image will not be stretched, but of course if the image is wider than 16:9 there will still be letterbox.

Does this make sense?

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

[ QUOTE ]
a dvd is progressive but still not true HD. You are only getting it at 480p. When BluRay dvd's come out (also on the ps3) you will have true HD quality on your tv. Do you have a progressive scan DVD player? The quality of your DVD player (the decoder on it) will really start to show on a nice HDTV.

[/ QUOTE ]

progressive/Blu Ray/etc are all different issues than aspect ratio.

you prob know this, but HD deals with the amount of lines on the screen at the same time. Progressive/interlaced deals with how those lines are displayed.

aspect ratio deals with the horizontal/vertical ratio of display

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

the picture looks phenomenal...I know it'ss not true HD...but it still looks better than my old TV.

Re: stupid question regarding my new HDTV
 

yes! Didn't think that the DVD player might have an option for this...thanks.