Video Asylum

Posted by Joaquin on October 16, 2003 at 11:43:34

In Reply to: Try setting the DVD to wide broadcast 16:9 and see what happens posted by SoundMike on October 10, 2003 at 07:03:34:

But my TV is 4:3 (5 years old), and it does not allow to change 4:3 or 16:9 mode... If I set the dvd to 16:9, the picture is shrinked (but proportions seem allright). Interestingly, if I activate the videotext, I got a full picture enlarged up and down (people is tall and thin).

With the dvd in 4:3 mode, 16:9 films are seend as they must be: perfect proportions, black horizontal bars. But 4:3 material is shrinked (distorted) and undue horizontal bars appear. As I can de-activate this "shrinking" effect (getting full picture) activating the videotext OR passing the signal through my Panasonic VCR before going to the TV, I think it´s a "problem" I can live with it, but I simply don´t understand why it is there.

I have talked to this to Philips Consumer Service here in Spain, and with the technical department of technikdirekt.de (the e-tailer where I have bought the dvd), and both tell me the problem is in my TV. The guy from technikdirekt tells me old TV sets do not make differences between 4:3 and 16:9, and this dvd native mode is 16:9 (at least that is what I understood). He repeated me the answer 2 times through the phone, and I simply gave up, not understanding what he meant (he was not very friendly).

Thanks in any case,

Joaquin