My TV is not recognizing widescreen DVDs as Widescreen, also any antenna suggestions?

Tory · 01-03-2008, 06:41 PM

I just got an Olevia 42 inch 1080p LCD and 242TFHD and I have a Pioneer 383 S. It is hooked up Component right now and the player is set to a widescreen TV and setting the TV to Aspect, it does not recognize the disc as Widescreen. The only way to get it correct is to set it to stretch the image to fill the screen which leaves some distortion I think. Is the problem most likely with the TV or the DVD player or does it have something to do with using component instead of hdmi? I am about to hook up a PS@ to see if that goes the way it should.

Also, any recommendations for antennas? I have two old ones outside and hooked em up and while all of my regional analog channels come in as poorly but as watchable as before, actually one channel is looking a lot better but still massively staticky no matter which way I put it I can't get a solid digital signal aside from the PBS ones. While it may add some of the other digital channels when pointed they still remain choppy. I gave up running back and forth up the ladder onto my roof and settled on the PBS area, at least one of these seems really meant for this type of TV.

nolesrule · 01-03-2008, 10:04 PM

Make sure your DVD player is set to 16x9 mode in the player setup menu. That's usually the problem when going to a widescreen TV.

I can't help you with antenaas.

Tory · 01-03-2008, 10:54 PM

Yeah, I already did that but thanks. I see that making it fullscreen zoom in function seems to make it the proper size but the stretch thing makes the sides appear odd. It seems to fullscreen function picks a size so as to get the most possible in the the 16x9 frame. I was worried about this with widerscreen films but it appears that the black bars to maintain the ratio do stay intact. Still, this does seem odd that this function does not work here but does for PBSHD.

Will_B · 01-03-2008, 11:14 PM

Make sure you are using a current widescreen film, and not an old one. Some early DVDs were not anamorphic. Put in Lord of the Rings or something that is absolutely positively anamorphic.

Tory · 01-04-2008, 08:06 AM

I am fairly certain the DVDs I tried are anamorphic but I have my DVDs in sleeves, not cases due to space limitations. I tried Marnie from The Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection, Oh What a Lovely War, Corpse Bride, Planet Terror, the Mackintosh Man from that Paul Newman boxset and a British import of the Calcium Kid. I do my best to get OAR anamorphic DVDs.

Also, in the Picture in Picture Mode, it seems I can only have one TV station and the other must be from an outside source like HDMI, Component, Composite. Is this standard or is something off?

**HTF Ads**

starrin · 01-04-2008, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tory

Also, any recommendations for antennas?

You could try this:
There is an excellent do it yourself antenna on youtube. Unfortunately the powers-that-be won't let me post it yet
maybe look at you tube then

slashwatch?vequalsignEWQhlmJTMzw

Tory · 01-04-2008, 08:58 AM

This would work better inside my house than 2 old big outdoor antennas?

Philip Hamm · 01-04-2008, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tory

This would work better inside my house than 2 old big outdoor antennas?

Absolutely not. It appears that starrin replied without reading the post, only reading the title.

You can use AntennaWeb to get antenna recommendations. I'm using a Channel Master 4221A for HD/UHF and something else I can't remember (cost like $17) for VHF/FM stereo. I don't know if these would be better than what you already have. Old antennas like yours should work great for analog and digital signals.

Your PIP experience is normal, look it up in your user manual.

I don't know about your 16:9 difficulties. You should be able to disable all stretching/processing in the TV and send a 16:9 signal, I don't know why you would have problems.

Tory · 01-04-2008, 11:54 AM

I just called customer service. I explained to him that everything was set up right 15 times and he could not grasp that the TV has a problem. He said he "already went the extra mile with me" and he is suppose to refer me to Pioneer's customer service, suggest I return it to the store which I can't, online purchase, they do not take returns on TVs like this, then he cut me off midsentence and put me on hold. He came back and said switch it to Full Screen Mode. This does fill up the screen but I believe there to be some quality loss here. I can't tell it but I believe this function is meant to crop an old fullscreen image to the new widescreenfullscreen. This seems like basically watching a non anamorphic DVD zoomed in to eliminate the black bars. If the Full Screen mode is the correct way of viewing it, it does fill up the screen and all, then why does Aspect say it automatically toggles between Fullscreen and Widescreen and does so on OTA broadcasts?

I just got enraged. They treated me like I was ignorant. MY Panasonic, My PS2, and I tried my Xbox and my Phillips DVD player too and none worked. They said they did not believe I had them set to widescreen. They said all Widescreen DVD have black bars on the top and bottom. I told them this was true on fullscreen TVs but not always so on widescreen as there are films and TV shows made for this size and those that are wider will of course have black bars but that was not the problem in the first place. I told them Planet Terror and Corpse Bride when played on any of these hooked up composite or component and set to widescreen endup getting squashed into a 4:3 image. I told them if I had it set to old fullscreen there would be black bars on the top and bottom in the cases of Planet Terror and Corpse Bride, they did not listen, they did not believe me.

They said I was the first person to complain of this, they said they owned them and did not have a problem. They said I had foolscreen DVDs which I never do, unless they are OAR fullscreen. They treated me like crap. I know about this stuff, well I am no expert but I know enough to know there is a problem here and to try to get the best presentation possible of the director's vision when purchasing. They ignored that I said I played these DVDs on my computer's widescreen monitor in correct aspect ratio, filling up the screen from left to right and sometimes top to bottom. They said contact the customer service of Sony, Pioneer, Phillips, and Microsoft.

They said it was impossible for the TV to squash the image. They seemed unknowing of the TV stretching a fullscreen image to widescreen until I said so and then they claimed knowledge. As far as I understand the image is the image and fills whatever it goes into, I have run the widescreen mode on a fullscreen TV and seen this distorted image before when fooling around with the features. The TV is not squashing the image, it is giving the image too small a room to go into.

They had some ignorance and they were annoyed by me. While it is possible they may know some things I do not, I can not believe that everything I own is malfunctioning in this manner and I know when something is set to play on a widescreen TV.

They asked why don't I use S-Video or HDMI. I said I don't have those wires, but really this should work in these other options right?

They said they never had this complaint before and did not believe me.

They said take it back to the store. I said I can't. They said Why. I said Newegg does not take back TVs they refer you back to the company and they said the company is not accepting it and referred me to the manufacturers of the multiple devices.

Please anyone that has an Olevia and has this problem, if there are any of you, please call them and tell that this is a problem. Please check you Aspect screen mode on things hooked up Component or Composite with widescreen films. Aspect is suppose to work a certain way and it is not, at least not on mine.

Even if this problem is on my end, I never felt so condescended to before.