More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer" (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

Yes, that is true, Greg. Personally, I could never accept a player that performs in such a manner. I much prefer my Oppo 980H, which does not distort 4x3 material.

 

[Cees Alons]

How can that possibly be true, Greg?

These people apparently don't know how to set the aspect ratio of their TV set. You can always set a 16x9 image to 4x3 on your TV set.

(Some TV sets may have a setting called "auto". In that case one must choose manual 4x3. My Samsung TV has a simple setting on the remote to change the ratio between 16x9/4:3/zoom/4:3 big, cropped.)


Cees


Edit: Just looked it up on the Amazon site. Indeed a few reviewers state this incorrect information, but if you go to the discussion thread, you will notice how one poster explains what to do to avoid the problem - the same "solution" I gave, of course. Funny: that poster appears to have a Samsung TV, just like me.

Perhaps changing the ratio setting is more straight forward on a Samsung than on other TV sets?
C.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I don't see a way on my Sony CRT, but I've never had an occasion to test it. I see two settings:

Screen Mode: Wide Zoom/Normal/Full/Zoom/H.Expand/Vert.Expand.

I have that on Full. Normal is grayed out.

4:3 Default: Wide Zoom/Normal/Full/Zoom/Off

I have that on Normal, but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. At least, not with my cable box.

I can't really know if I'd be able to overcome the problem since the settings currently do nothing (well, the Screen Mode zooms work). I guess I could buy it at Best Buy and take it back if it's a problem. Like Scott said, stretched 4x3 is a dealbreaker.

 

[Cees Alons]

That seems the wisest choice indeed.

Please let us know what you found!


Cees

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The options that are available from your TV's menu may depend on the input - both the connection type and the output settings of the cable box. You might want to try playing with those.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Stephen Tu]

When you have a combo of a DVD player that doesn't pillarbox 4:3 discs, and a TV that always uses 16:9 mode when it sees a 720p/1080i signal, the usual solution is to change the DVD output to 480p (or 480i, necessary on some very old TVs). This will nearly always let you set the TV to a 4:3 mode that works.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah, but that defeats the purpose of having an upscaling DVD player, doesn't it?

I just tried the settings on the DVD input (component), and Normal was no longer grayed out. 4x3 Default still did nothing. I'll have to read up on it.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I own one of these, and *love* it; but I can tell you definitively that it will *not* pillarbox 4:3 material when upscaling to HDMI. Your display *must* be capable of handling this. This question was recently asked of Toshiba and they verified that they consider that to be a function of the display. The unit is already doing so much (upscaling *and* enhancing all the way to 1080p/24 for film-based DVDs) that adding the 4:3 pillarbox function would have made the unit too expensive to market.

Fortunately for me, the display I have it mated to (an Optoma HD65 projector) provides for a selectable aspect ratio of 4:3, 16:9, Letterbox, and Native via the HDMI input.

 

[Manfred123]

Right on, write on about whatever you feel best.

 

[Ralphie_B]

Not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but I see Toshiba is putting similar processing into some of their TVs now -- my in-laws just bought a 47" Toshiba Regza that touts its "Resolution+" feature. I spent this weekend helping them physically set up the TV and stand, but haven't yet had a chance to do detailed tweaks to their picture settings -- so too early to say how good Resolution+ is/isn't. Just based on watching a few minutes of a DVD (input via component video from an older Sony player), I'd say this TV's handling of SD looks quite good! But I'd be interested to toggle Resolution+ on/off and see what differences it might make.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Not sure which model your parents got, but Kevin reviewed a 52" Toshiba with it a few months ago here and his obeservations could be helpful in setting up the display:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/toshiba/index.html