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New purchase, and question on stretch mode (1 Viewer)

Gary.Blevins

Agent
Joined
Apr 21, 2003
Messages
37
Greets,
Just purchased a Tosh 50HDX82 (delivered Saturday...WOOT!), and what swayed me towards it, versus the Hitachi 51SWX20B was the zoom mode. Though the salesman said that the Hitachi used a progressive stretch mode similar to the Tosh, I really noticed a kind of "Fish-eye" effect (for lack of a better word), when watching the Hitachi. For example, when the camera followed a batter running the bases, the crowed in the background looked warped, as it passed from the sides of the screen towards the middle. I didn't notice this at all on the Tosh. Has anyone else seen this effect?

BTW, Comcast in Sacramento, CA is now offering HDTV tuners, and I am getting mine next Friday. Double Woot!

Gary
 

Jeff Gatie

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2002
Messages
6,531
There are 3 stretch/zoom modes on the Tosh WS TV's

Theater Wide 1 - No zoom (actually there is a little more overscan than usual) and progressive stretching (Less stretch in the middle, more on the sides.

Theater Wide 2 - Straight crop and zoom to 1:78:1, used for non-anamorphic DVD's. This may be what you saw on the Tosh, although all widescreens should have a mode like this. No stretching or distortion, but it will crop things like tickers at the bottom or sports score bubbles at the top. The Tosh does allow you to scroll the picture up or down to expose more of the top or bottom (while simultaneously covering more of the bottom or top).

Theater Wide 3 - Slight zoom and uniform stretch. Not as much zoom as (2) and not as much stretch as (1). Also has the scroll explained in (2). I prefer this mode, but it is definitely a personal choice. Many others choose (1) or (2).
 

Steve Schaffer

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 15, 1999
Messages
3,756
Real Name
Steve Schaffer
All 16/9 sets have the 2nd method above-straight zoom and crop with available scroll. Where they vary is in their handling of the "variable stretch" modes.

I had an Hitachi, which uses only the first of the above methods for variable stretch and hated the fisheye effect. I think Mits uses this method.

My current Sony uses the 3rd method above for it's variable stretch, and it's very good indeed.

Toshiba seems to be the only mfg. that includes both variable stretch modes, nice.
 

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