[Andrew Beckmen]

This is all hypothetical at this point, I am months away (or more) from actually buying anything, I am just doing reasearch because HT stuff can be confusing and I want to familiarize myself with it.

The TV I am planning on buying (but might not if something better comes along from here and then) is the Sony 46" KP46WT510. I have heard mostly good things about this model other than this locking in thing. But if the Zenith will rectify it, I am happy. It's just that I want to be able to watch TV shows in OAR and non-anamorphic movies in OAR without picture warping such as stretching.

[Don_Berg]

I'd avoid the Zenith if your HDTV locks to FULL mode with 1080i - there are just too many 4:3 DVD video titles like TV episode boxsets that would be horribly stretched. These titles also need the Faroudja de-interlacer the most and using 480i s-video output doesn't use the Faroudja! I still think a top-rated progressive player like the Panasonic XP30 Faroujda-based player is the best overall for ALL aspect ratio titles unless your TV can adjust formats in 1080i mode (very rare). If Zenith would address this issue and/or improve the quality (eliminate color-bleeding issues) with 480p mode than it could be considered.

[Andrew Beckmen]

Well, if The Zenith can do a vertical-only stretch as Steve said, it's not a problem. Sure the TV will stretch the image horizontally, but then the DVD player can stretch it vertically and they will cancel each-other out and fix the problem. Right? It's like 12 - 12 = 0 + 12 = 12..

[NickSo]

Andrew: yes, that is exactly what the vertical stretch does/will do.

[Andrew Beckmen]

Good. Thanks. Now I will follow threads anmd see what other problems happen.

Now can someone go over to my Pioneer DVD-R thread and answer my questions about the DVR-510HS?

[Don_Berg]

NO - on a 4:3 title you will lost one-third of the picture if you stretch it vertically like that, thats unacceptable! The Zenith needs a pillar-box mode for 4:3 titles.

[NickSo]

The stretch is for non-anamorphic titles (not fullscreen 4:3 material), and it does work for 'unsqueezing' the image.

[Andrew Beckmen]

I don't get it. The TV stretches 4:3 to 16:9, then the DVD player stretches is vertically 16:9 back down to 4:3. Non-anamorphic DVDs are simply 4:3 material with letterbox mattes. The image is still 4:3 although the frame is 1.85 or 2.35 or whatever...So how could there be a differance here?

[NickSo]

because when you vertically stretch it, only the black bars of the non-anamorphic transfer will be cut off at the top and bottom.

But with 4:3 material where its full-screen, if you vertically stretch it, it will be part of the picture that is cut off at the top and bottom, and not the black bars that would be cut off in the non-anamorphic DVD.

Ill try to show it visually later when i get on my desktop with PaintShopPro...

[Don_Berg]

Its a zoom/crop operation, so you would lose 1/3 of the vertical picture from a 4:3 title. For a letterboxed widescreen non-anamorphic thats OK (you only lose black bars) but for full frame 4:3 videos like TV episode box-sets and if you convert VHS or record your own 4:3 video with DVD recorders you will lose 1/3 of the picture.