I recently got around to upgrading to a nice 42 inch plasma screen TV. It’s got the usual widescreen aspect ratio. This is a good thing. It’s actually the main reason for my upgrade. I’m fine with having black bars on the sides when watching TV, especially if it means I get to fully use the screen when watching movies in widescreen which is how I prefer them.
However, I’ve been disappointed with how this is all working. TV shows that are broadcast in widescreen still show up with black bars below in addition to the ones on the side. I have to use my TV remote to go to the “zoom” feature to blow it up to use the full screen. This cuts off my view of the Tivo progress bar in addition to causing the image quality to suffer. Is it too much to ask that the TV be smart enough to somehow just know if the show I’m watching is in widescreen or not? If I upgrade to HDTV will it be?
Another thing is the actual movies. Almost all of them are in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 ratios instead of the 1.78:1 ratio that everybody’s TVs are in. I can see there being some inconsistency when looking at older flicks like Ben Hur or Laurence or Arabia, but can’t we just pick a standard and stick with it now? If everyone’s widescreen TV is in a 1.78:1 ratio then that’s what the movies should be made in, right?
I changed my Tivo, DVD player and VCR settings all to be for a widescreen TV, yet I still have to have an entirely new remote on my table just for the one “widscreen” button, which I now constantly have to use depending on what I’m watching. Is this the norm?
Yes, it’s too much to ask your TV to be smart enough, and yes, if you upgrade to an HDTV signal, it will be.
First, IMHO if you bought an HD capable TV, but didn’t upgrade to HD service from your cable/satellite/antenna, you wasted a lot of money. Shows look MUCH better in HD.
When a show is recorded in HD, but broadcast on SD, they sometimes add the top/bottom black bars to the signal they broadcast to you (and sometimes they just crop the edges). Your TV has no way of knowing this occurred. All it knows it that it received a 4:3 signal, and adds it’s own side black bars to it to display on the 16:9 screen. If you upgrade to an HD signal, you’ll get the full 16:9 display sent to you.
You won’t be able to use your old Tivo with HD though.
Movie makers aren’t particularly interested in what the movie will look like on your TV. They’re interested in what it will look like in the movie theater. They’ll pick the aspect ratio based on that - 2.35 for action, 1.85 for romance, etc. Unfortunate, but true.
For DVDs - most now are “enhanced for 16:9 widescreen” or some similar notation that will give you a TV-filling 16:9 presentation. I’m not 100% sure, but for 1.85:1 films, I think it just nips off a few pixels from the edge (a regular TV would lose them in the overscan, anyway, so no big loss) 2.35:1 films will be letterboxed, but it’s far less than what you’d see on a 4:3 TV.
The key is that you need to hit the DVD player setup and tell it you have a 16:9 TV. From there, it’s automatic.
On watching regular TV - you do risk some plasma burn-in if you watch it as a side-boxed image. It’s better for the TV if you zoom the image to fill the screen. (Panasonic’s anamorphic “JUST” mode does a better job of this than the standard “ZOOM” - don’t know what you have, but am tossing that out for anyone that has a Panny.)
For the shows that are being produced in HD and broadcast in a letterbox format on regular TV, you need to pick up the HD broadcast of that channel to get it in full 16:9 without the boxing.
I didn’t waste money getting an HD tv. You’d be hard pressed to even find a 42 inch plasma these days that isn’t HD. Mine cost $1100. I doubt I could save much by trying to find one that isn’t HD compatible.
Upgrading to HD costs a dollar amount monthly. Also, my Tivo would then be useless, as you noted.
I’ll think about upgrading now, though. If the HD signal will mean I don’t have to tweak settings constantly, then that makes it worth it if I can find an HD DVR at a reasonable price.
I don’t like the zoom mode, either. I have a couple of modes like this. One zooms the whole image, which can be good but can crop out top and bottoms. The other is a panoramic zoom that warps the sides of the screen. You see this one in bars a lot. It’s annoying to see the football players with football shaped heads.
I apologize if my previous statement re: “wasted a lot of money” came off snarky. Let me restate it.
A person who enjoys watching television on a large screen, and who has the disposable income to purchase such a TV, would, in my opinion, serve themselves well by paying the extra monthly costs to get HD programming. The difference in picture quality is quite simply astonishing. This assumes of course, that there are programs on the HD channels available which said person would normally enjoy watching.
What kind of service do you have? Dish Network, DirectTV, and most large cable companies offer HD service with a DVR (at various price levels).