Aspect ratios on Sony Bravia

[lissener]

So my store put up a new flat screen TV. There's a button on the remote labeled "WIDE." It toggles between Full, Normal, Zoom, and Wide Zoom. As far as I can tell, Normal means "default," no change. Full and Wide Zoom both seem to expand the picture along the horizontal axis--as far as I can tell, they're the same. Zoom expands it along both axes.

Another guy who works here likes to put things on Wide Zoom. When this happens, it appears to me that the picture is distorted; stretched from side to side. He doesn't notice this, and sees no distortion. When I put it on Zoom-- +X and +Y --he's convinced the picture's being unnecessarily truncated.

No, I know from adjusting the picture on a normal TV that part of the picture usually bleeds off the edge of the display screen, so this minimal truncation is not a big deal to me. It's certainly preferable to the distortion caused by the one-axis expansion. But since he doesn't see the distortion, it's a point of constant contention.

My question: why are two of the Zoom options single-axis expansion? When would this ever be necessary when watching normal TV or videos? And can anyone point me to a cite where I can prove that the Full and Wide Zoom options do, in fact, distort the picture?

Thanks.

[The Shroud]

I don't know anything about that TV model, but I've seen a mode on some TVs where the edges are stretched more than the center, lessening distortion of anything that's centered, but increasing it on the periphery. Could "Wide Zoom" be doing that?

For some reason certain people are able to ignore aspect ratios. I work with a bunch of TV professionals who are regularly putting tall skinny people on the air, because they haven't felt the need to correct the aspect ratio to fit our SD format. I always notice it instantly; same with wide 4:3 on a 16:9 display.

[flex727]

Wide (or Full on the Bravia), where only the x-axis is stretched is primarily for anamorphic DVDs and for people who must have their widescreen TV completely filled with content regardless of spatial distortion. Zoom, which expand both x & y will fill the screen without distortion, but will truncate a substantial portion of the top and bottom of the picture (but not the sides). It primarily useful for widescreen SD presentations that, without zoom, appear to be "windowboxed" and will fill the screen appropriately without distortion. This all assumes SD presentations. HD presentations will not have those functions available and should always fill the screen.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

I have a 37" Toshiba Regzla (sp?) LCD TV and it has those features. Count me among those that stretch the screen out in a non-HD broadcast to fill the screen, resolution bedamned. I hate those borders.

[CookingWithGas]

...Full on the Bravia..., where only the x-axis is stretched is primarily for anamorphic DVDs and for people who must have their widescreen TV completely filled with content regardless of spatial distortion. Zoom, which expand[s] both x & y will fill the screen without distortion, but will truncate a substantial portion of the top and bottom of the picture (but not the sides).In addition to the accurate descriptions of these two modes, the Wide Zoom mode is a compromise between the two, with some zoom, and the expansion along the x-axis to fill any remaining space along the sides. It does not have as much distortion as Wide, and not as much truncation as Zoom.

I have a Bravia KDL-46W3000. Here is the page from the Bravia user's manual (http://www.seigle.net/bravia_wide.jpg) which illustrates this quite clearly, but does not describe it in words or give technical specs.

The guy at work is wrong about the distortion, it's easy to see if you know what to look for. But the brain does an amazing job of masking the distortion.