does this tv make you look fat

[Jeff Corey]

New computer and having trouble typing. isn't that little clitmouse in the middle of the keyboard to frach up the message.
But has anyone noticed that these new widescreen TVs make people look fatter than they actually are?

i don't have one of those tvs,but when I see one, I say,"Wowza, Dr. Phil and Oprah need a three car garage"

[Towlie]

They do if they're not set up right. If you set a 16 x 9 wide screen to horizontally stretch a 4 x 3 picture in order to fill up the screen, then, naturally, the picture will be distorted.

[rdaneel]

They do if they're not set up right. If you set a 16 x 9 wide screen to horizontally stretch a 4 x 3 picture in order to fill up the screen, then, naturally, the picture will be distorted.
What he said. It's just growing pains really, I'm not sure anyone even sells 4x3 TV's anymore and once 16x9 becomes the majority in homes, most tv shows and stations should be switched over. In the mean time, all these TV's can be set to not stretch the image, which will just leave black bars on the sides of the screen.

[Jeff Corey]

OK, a couple of friends have asked me how to fix it and I said I didn't go to TV Camp.

By the way, loading Firefox just gave me spell check and no more not being able to post coherent paragraphs problems

[rdaneel]

OK, a couple of friends have asked me how to fix it and I said I didn't go to TV Camp. Well on my remote, I have a button marked "Format". First click brings up a menu on the TV, repeated clicking cycles through the options.

[Towlie]

I did that on my Mom's new TV and she couldn't handle the black bars on the sides. She made me change it back.

[rdaneel]

I did that on my Mom's new TV and she couldn't handle the black bars on the sides. She made me change it back.
Yeah, my mom decided she'd rather just live with the stretched images, and like I said, I don't think it's going to be an issue forever.

[quarky]

Reminds me of playing with a strong magnet as a bad kid with a tube tv. You could pull the image all around and make Ed Sullivan look really weird.

[Skeptical Greg]

New computer and having trouble typing. isn't that little clitmouse in the middle of the keyboard to frach up the message.
But has anyone noticed that these new widescreen TVs make people look fatter than they actually are?

i don't have one of those tvs,but when I see one, I say,"Wowza, Dr. Phil and Oprah need a three car garage" That's not the widescreen TV ..

[Careyp74]

My widescreen has a 'Justified' selection, which zooms in a little, getting rid of a little bit on top and bottom that isn't needed, while at the same time stretching out the sides a little. You don't notice much difference because usually the important stuff is in the middle.

ETA: I also have an 'Auto' feature on mine that switches between the various modes, so it just does a basic zoom on widescreen format, and Justified on regular format. Only takes about a second after the information on the TV changes, like when a widescreen commercial comes on during a regular format show.

[jasonpatterson]

I don't know about your tv in particular, but if I toggle through the various formats for mine, I've got a choice called Cinema that crops the top and bottom and zooms the middle. It's for making 16x9 movies/tv that are in 4x3 format (so that they've got black bars above and below as well as beside) fill the screen. It works just as well on actual 4x3 movies/tv, as long as I don't mind losing a little off the top and bottom of the image. It looks better than the stretched out version. I also have a setting that keeps the center of the image more or less normal then stretches the sides. My wife likes that one, but it makes me nauseous to watch it for long.

[Professor Yaffle]

New computer and having trouble typing. isn't that little clitmouse in the middle of the keyboard to frach up the message.
But has anyone noticed that these new widescreen TVs make people look fatter than they actually are?

i don't have one of those tvs,but when I see one, I say,"Wowza, Dr. Phil and Oprah need a three car garage"

It's really funny watching gymnastics - they change shape as they do somersaults.

[Modified]

I've noticed that lately for a lot of news clips, they don't bother to set the format correctly, and some commercials are also in the wrong format. So even if you have the TV set correctly for the station, you will still see some stretched video. There is a lot less of this then there was a few months ago though.

[AvalonXQ]

I can't stand a bad aspect ratio. When relatives want me to "get rid of the black bars", I put it on 4:3 zoom. They never notice losing the top and bottom, and I don't have to deal with the stretch.

[Disclord]

I can't stand a bad aspect ratio. When relatives want me to "get rid of the black bars", I put it on 4:3 zoom. They never notice losing the top and bottom, and I don't have to deal with the stretch.

I've always thought that Pan-n-Scan versions of movies on DVD should also have only mono sound with an 8kHz bandwidth. And the chroma resolution should be restricted to only 30-lines or so, like a good VHS tape.

One thing that really drives me crazy are people who bought only Pan-n-Scan DVD's, because they hated the black bars at the top and bottom, and have now upgraded to a 16x9 set, are complaining that all their movies have black bars on the sides! Oh, the horror!

I do wish the Blu-ray format (and the other HD systems) had implemented an anamorphic mode for aspect ratios wider than 1.85:1. Without it, we're back to were we were in the days of LaserDisc, when the black bars took up actual vertical resolution.

[Rolfe]

I don't even notice the black bars. The wrong aspect ratio drives me insane.

Rolfe.

[quarky]

If the black bars were white, or beige, I wonder if it would be less noticeable? Black is sort of strict and final.

[Wowbagger]

If the black bars were white, or beige, I wonder if it would be less noticeable? Black is sort of strict and final.It depends on the color of the television frame.

If the frame is black, the black bars are not as noticable.

Some televisions with a silver frame have the option of replacing the black bars with frame-color-matching silver bars. (though, it won't work when the bars are actually encoded in the television signal, which can happen when an HD channel shows a non-HD show.)

[ZirconBlue]

I have sort of the opposite problem. I have an older 4:3 (analog) tv. I used to see tv shows broadcast in "widescreen" format, that would have narrow black bars at the top and bottom. Lately, however, it seems I'm seeing a cropped version of the show instead. I don't recall the last time I saw the black bars, and often text, etc is cropped off the edges of the screens.


And I don't know whether House is broadcast in widescreen format, but it always seem to show characters talking with half their face cut off at the edge of the screen.

[Skeptical Greg]

If the black bars were white, or beige, I wonder if it would be less noticeable? Black is sort of strict and final.
I had a TV that used greyish/silver for the bars, and I found it very distracting..

Black says to me " nothing to see here, move along..

[Ziggurat]

I do wish the Blu-ray format (and the other HD systems) had implemented an anamorphic mode for aspect ratios wider than 1.85:1. Without it, we're back to were we were in the days of LaserDisc, when the black bars took up actual vertical resolution.

There are "widescreen" DVD's which are encoded in 4:3 with black bars on top and bottom built into the image. While you can always zoom in to fill the screen, the resolution is degraded, because they're doing exactly that: taking up vertical resolution with black.

[Sunsneezer]

I can't stand a bad aspect ratio. When relatives want me to "get rid of the black bars", I put it on 4:3 zoom. They never notice losing the top and bottom, and I don't have to deal with the stretch.
Yeah me neither. .The worst stretched 4:3 is one that actually contains letterboxed 16:9. My father in law insists that it is necessary because some of the content is displayed where the black bars are (the commercials are 4:3) and he won't let me adjust it properly because it's a hassle to use the menus. Can't wait for the 16:9 transition to be over with.

I'm actually offended when a broadcaster re-crop the 4:3 cropped version of movies back to 16:9 instead of buying the right version. Every other frame has something sticking out or too close to the edge.

16:9 teletoon retro channel is a TRAVESTY! Why do they have to crop the Looney Tunes?! It looks WRONG!