Oddity: Suddenly can't watch full screen DVDs in 4:3 on my HDTV (1 Viewer)

Can't explain it, don't know why or how it happened either.

I came home one night and found that I cannot watch a full screen DVD in 4:3 "normal mode" on my Sony TV (model #: KDL-32M3000 serial #: 4067674) I never altered my TV or BD player settings. Previously I had 4 different viewing modes to watch a FS DVD in, wide, zoom, full, normal, etc. "Normal" being the one that allowed me to watch a full screen DVD as 4:3 (with the "black bars" on the sides.) In fact the "normal" mode is now blacked out meaning the option can't be highlighted or selected. The manual states "normal" cannot be used for 16:9 sources, well, "Police Academy: Assignment Miami Beach" (yes I own it, stop snickering!) is a FS only DVD so the option should still be there to select.

I do not have this problem watching TV programming though and can switch to whatever mode I wish but another oddity....when I previously watched a widescreen movie and finished...switching back to TV, the TV show was automatically in a wide format so I had to always adjust to normal, now it's automatically normal when I switch over. Weird no?

Any ideas or suggestions on how I can return it to the way it was? The manual offers no help, I've tinkered around with the options and as far as I can remember, they're set to the settings I've had since I got the TV.

I'm really perplexed here. It's annoying having to watch a full screen concert DVD (for example) blown up, even minimally to "full" mode because it does somewhat alter the picture quality.

Which model BD player? Most likely you kicked in an upconversion mode on the BD player somehow. If you hit the "display" the TV should tell you what resolution is incoming, 480i/480p/720p/1080i etc.

You need to set the BD player back to 480i/480p to get "normal" mode back. There might also be a setting on the BD player to automatically "pillar box" 4:3 DVDs so you can just leave the TV on "full" mode.

Originally Posted by Stephen Tu

Which model BD player? Most likely you kicked in an upconversion mode on the BD player somehow. If you hit the "display" the TV should tell you what resolution is incoming, 480i/480p/720p/1080i etc.

You need to set the BD player back to 480i/480p to get "normal" mode back. There might also be a setting on the BD player to automatically "pillar box" 4:3 DVDs so you can just leave the TV on "full" mode.

Click to expand...

I dunno how I woulda done that, don't recall pressing any buttons by accident. My BD player is a Sony BDP S350.

I believe my TV only displays 720p so I have the player set on that as I recall.

Who cares if you can't figure out/remember doing it? That's irrelevant to fixing the problem. You have to figure out what state it is in now, if you do, perhaps it will be possible to deduce backwards what happened, perhaps not.

The question to answer is what the TV says it's getting in. Hit display on the TV and report. Hit display on the DVD, what does it say? What are the video settings on the BD player, particularly the screen format, output video format+resolution?

Using component or HDMI? No other intervening components like a receiver?

Edited by Stephen Tu - 8/4/2009 at 08:40 am GMT

Originally Posted by Stephen Tu



The question to answer is what the TV says it's getting in. Hit display on the TV and report. Hit display on the DVD, what does it say? What are the video settings on the BD player, particularly the screen format, output video format+resolution?

Using component or HDMI? No other intervening components like a receiver?

Edited by Stephen Tu - 8/4/2009 at 08:40 am GMT

Click to expand...

Putting in the new "Big Trouble in Little China" BD, hitting display on the BD player simply says 720/60p like it usually does. Other than the time counter, etc. TV display button says the usual, HDMI, wide mode full.

Popping in the previously mentioned "Police Academy" standard DVD, full screen only. BD player display still says 720/60p, only difference is that it says MPEG instead of AVEC (or was it AVC?) TV display says same thing as before.

Use HDMI cable. Video settings on the BD player.... Tv type: 16:9, screen format: original, dvd aspect ratio: letter box, cinema conversion mode: auto (this has been set this way from the beginning,) output video format: TV connection method - HDMI & output video resolution - 720p,

BD player display still says 720/60p

Click to expand...

That's your problem right there, you are using 720p out, upconverting the DVD; & your TV assumes this is 16:9 and locks out the "normal" mode. If you change the "screen format" from "original" to "fixed", the player will pillarbox 4:3 full frame content, and then you can keep upconverting and leave the TV on the "full" mode. It will also zoom most 4:3 letterboxed content, although there are some where the zoom may not kick in; for those you'd have to change your output resolution to 480p/480i and zoom with the TV.

As for how you were able to use "normal" mode before, that's hard to explain, unless either one of the settings changed (e.g. connection method - component, which would still allow HDMI out but downconvert most DVDs to 480p), or you were using component video before, or just forgot which player you were using the last time you played a 4:3 DVD.

Originally Posted by Stephen Tu



That's your problem right there, you are using 720p out, upconverting the DVD; & your TV assumes this is 16:9 and locks out the "normal" mode. If you change the "screen format" from "original" to "fixed", the player will pillarbox 4:3 full frame content, and then you can keep upconverting and leave the TV on the "full" mode. It will also zoom most 4:3 letterboxed content, although there are some where the zoom may not kick in; for those you'd have to change your output resolution to 480p/480i and zoom with the TV.

As for how you were able to use "normal" mode before, that's hard to explain, unless either one of the settings changed (e.g. connection method - component, which would still allow HDMI out but downconvert most DVDs to 480p), or you were using component video before, or just forgot which player you were using the last time you played a 4:3 DVD.

Click to expand...

lol no, it's the same player I used whilst watching a 4:3 DVD before this problem arose.

Anyway, I changed the BD player settings to "fixed aspect ratio" and though it does allow a 4:3 look, the TV is still not allowing me to put it on "normal" mode.

Edit: Oh and I've always used an HDMI cable from day one, bought it the same day I got the BD player.

Anyway, I changed the BD player settings to "fixed aspect ratio" and though it does allow a 4:3 look, the TV is still not allowing me to put it on "normal" mode.

Click to expand...

That's how it's supposed to work. As long as you have the output on 720p resolution, you will never be able to use "normal", as the TV locks it out. I mentioned "fixed", that way you see 4:3 in the proper aspect ratio, while still keeping it on 720p, then not being able to select "normal" on the TV is not really an issue.

If you want to use "normal" on the TV, you have to switch to 480i or 480p output. But then you'd have to keep switching it back for BD. You might be able to accomplish this without switching res by setting the BD for *component* out in the settings, with 720p resolution, while still connecting via HDMI. According to the manual, this does 720p for BD, 480p for copy protected DVDs. You'd also have to set the screen format back to "original" for the zoom modes to work right on the TV. Using "fixed" is just much easier, you don't have to switch zoom modes all the time since the player handles the vast majority of cases fine. Switching to 480p out for DVDs by using the component setting might be a slight improvement though, avoids a double-scaling on your set.

Using "normal" before, means at the time you were using 480i/480p out on the DVD. You may not remember changing a setting, but other explanations are improbable.

Well thanks for your help bud.