Wide screen vs. Full screen?

Seems as I browse through the stores there's an over abundance of "wide screen format" tvs for sale.

I was watching some movie they had on (may have been a DVD) and "The Rock" (Dwayne Johnson) looked squashed like the munchkins on the Wizard of Oz.

I'm thinking they were showing a full screen format on the wide screen tv?

Then some regular programming was shown and still the people had that "squashed" look.

My current tv is full screen and has the capability to show wide or full. That's what I want - a choice and no "squashed" folks (well unless they are supposed to be "squashed"?!!

I need some education on this. I've got a friend who's looking for a tv and he's holding off till we get this figured out.

Sigman,
Most new TVs have a screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9 (aka widescreen), but the problem is that far from all broadcast networks are sending in this format, because they are afraid that those who have *very* old tv sets (that can only show 4:3 aspect ratio) will miss something. Therefor they actually broadcast the show/movie or what ever, in the old 4:3 format. If then, you want to view this signal on a 16:9 set, without loosing any part of picture, you either have to stretch the picture (squashed look), or you have to view it with black bars on either side of the picture. *All* tv sets with 16:9 format is capable of showing 4:3 format with black 'side bars' without distortion.

Hope this helps.
Jan

Just a quick addition...most widescreen TV's that I've seen will stretch 4:3 content "intelligently". That is, they will stretch more towards the sides and leave the center relatively untouched. This is much better than using "full" which would stretch the entire picture equally. On my Sony KD-30XS955 for instance, many TV shows are not too bad when stretched. Of course, I do prefer 16:9 content.

- Chris


- Chris

There's another way to look at this. Consider someone with an old TV. My house is full of them. And some aren't all that old.

From my perspective, the stations put black bars at the top and bottom and steal pixels from my viewing. In some instances I get a screen with only half a picture which is almost unviewable. The solution, which is to buy six new TVs, is something I don't want to spend my money on.

. . . just an opposing "view" on the situation.

Paul

I just got a Sharp widescreen LCD TV and it has four viewing modes:

Side bar - displays a "regular" TV image with black bars on the sides, no distortion.

Stretch - stretches the regular TV image to fill the wide screen. Picture is somewhat distorted.

Smart Stretch - This is the "intelligent stretch" Gimpy mentioned. I believe it stretches the edges of a regular TV image more than the center so the distortion is less apparent.

Zoom - A regular TV image will fill the screen with the top and bottom chopped off. A widescreen image will fill the screen with no distortion.

I prefer to watch regular TV shows in sidebar mode because I don't like any distortion of the image, but some people think I'm "wasting" the wide screen. To me, the wide screen is for wide screen movies.

Can a wide screen TV be set so a full screen aspect ratio is not changed? Either with black bars left and right or with the top and bottom lopped off. Lopping off the tops and bottoms of is not as bad as it sounds as most old programs allow for overscanning used in small TVs.

Any widescreen 16x9 TV I have seen can be set to show regular TV in their native format with two black bars running down the left and right sides of the screen. This is how I typically watch TV.

If I am watching a TV show on DVD, such as Magnum PI or Star Trek or something I will typically run it in ZOOM mode. This will cut a very small amount off what is shown but keep the aspect ratio. What is cut off has never taken away from the viewing.

It took me a bit of time to get used to owning a Widescreen TV but I love it. Watching a movie, especially a newer movie is just breathtaking and with the lights turned off is almost like being in the theatre. Watched Batman Begins and Collateral this weekend and with the surround sound cranked and the room dark it is like watching in a theatre.

Chris

Alot of the time they may have the settings wrong.
If you try to play a full screen dvd or movie on a wide screen tv, you need to tell it that,
if you dont, it will stretch the full screen one out to fit the widescreen format.

The bad thing about watching cable tv on a wide screen tv, is that it will have the sides not used, they will just be black,
well, thats fine, but after a while, some burn that black part into the display.

Overall, wide screen is always better !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEVER buy a full screen DVD !!!!!!!!!
It is CUTTING OFF some of the picture so it fits your screen !!!!
You are NOT seeing all of the movie !!!
It took forever to explain that to my mother.

~John

For good explanations on FullScreen vs WideScreen you should check the Bonus features of the movie 'The Interpreter'. It explains why black bars at the top don't 'steal' any of the image, but rather a movie broadcasted on TV has half of its image removed because of Pan&Scan conversion. The scene with the locksmith is pretty convincing why widescreen is better even if you get black bars.

Sigman said:

Seems as I browse through the stores there's an over abundance of "wide screen format" tvs for sale.

I was watching some movie they had on (may have been a DVD) and "The Rock" (Dwayne Johnson) looked squashed like the munchkins on the Wizard of Oz.

I'm thinking they were showing a full screen format on the wide screen tv?

Then some regular programming was shown and still the people had that "squashed" look.

My current tv is full screen and has the capability to show wide or full. That's what I want - a choice and no "squashed" folks (well unless they are supposed to be "squashed"?!!

I need some education on this. I've got a friend who's looking for a tv and he's holding off till we get this figured out.

Click to expand...

Well, it comes down to the future. The future is widescreen (16x9). The days of 4x3 are numbered. All movies are shot on widescreen and have to be cropped to fit 4x3 so you loose info with your current set under the best of conditions. A surprising amount of network programming is shot in 16x9 now. That is only going to increase in the future.

As stated above the 16x9 sets can stretch the 4x3 picture in various ways to make them more pleasing to view. The need for that will decline over the next several years as more programming switches to 16x9. Even my local news is now shot in 16x9 (Raleigh NC).

This is also evident in the ATSC standard itself. The ATSC standard has one mode that would be preferred for 4x3 and 2 modes for 16x9. Most broadcasters are going to use 720p or 1080i which are both 16x9. Even fox has backed off of using 480p (4x3).

My advice.. Buy 16x9 and don't look back. You might have to get new copies of your favorite DVDs that are 4x3 to show off that new TV but that will be worth it too.

I have a widescreen HDTV. I've had Dish and TW Cable. When viewing with those, I must use the converter box's apsect ratio. There are four of them. Standard, stretch, zoom1 and zoom2. Cable zooms better, especially to zoom2. Stretching makes everything slightly distorted with both Dish and Cable. You can see it most in faces on screen, and during classic Star Trek the monitors on the Enterprise look widescreen! HD zooms better for picture quality, but even it loses some.

And even some movies in HD still have a black bar on the top and bottom, requiring the use of the zoom feature. I did have options for lightening the black bars to grey with Dish. I think I do with TWC as well, but have just opted to stretcht the picture.

My DVD player has all kinds of options. Including one that lets you zoom by just 1% at a time. It really makes me wonder why the size of the bars on top and bottome varies, and why I have them even when properly configured?

My JVC 30" HDTV can be set for full or wide screen and I have it on wide screen all of the time.

I didn't think that I would like it but I do. The only drawback is that the "crawl line" from the cable news channels get cut off a little bit but who cares.

Indeed :thanks: to all for the education. I'm capturing this thread to send to my buddy...

Also keep in mind most of the wide stuff being sold is 720p and not 1080i they will do 1080i but not in its true form.

Many cable boxes offer a "passthrough" mode which passes the native sync frequencies and aspect ratio along to the TV set on a channel-by-channel basis. This allows the TV set to decide on the best screen size/scan rate/aspect ratio on the fly.

This mode slows down channel surfing a tiny bit though, especially when switching between channels with different resolutions, because the tv set needs a moment to decide how to configure itself every time you change the channel.

If you have a box with a DVI or HDMI output and a compatible input on the set, the digital link can handle this whole thing automatically.

It gets confusing. For now focus on a widescreen set and the rest will shake itself out.