Are WideScreen Owners Disillusioned? (1 Viewer)

[DaveJB]

People are buying wide screens right and left and hopefully one day all TV shows will look as good as the DVD's that are played. But for now we watch a paultry few TV shows and the remaining we stretch and distort so the set doesn't burn in. I look at a new wide screen almost every week, imagining how crisp and clear the DVD's would look. Then I think about the remaining regular TV I watch (probably 60-70%) and the reality sets in that I'm spending $2000 to distort a picture a good portion of the time. A few of my friends have already taken the plunge and swear its the way to go, claiming "you get used to the picture" or "it actually looks better". In reality thats not what the picture looks like and someone without a HD set can usually notice it right away. In the mean time I impatiently wait for Time Warner and most television stations to get converted so I can make my purchase.

 

[rich_rosell]

I'm still in the market for an RPTV, so maybe I'm not the most qualified to comment on the whole 'disillusionment' issue, but I'll give it a shot.

It seems that if you personally don't like the stretch look of RPTVs (and that's 70% of your viewing) then perhaps you might want to consider a traditional tube set (like a WEGA).

In my case, I'm the opposite. I watch very little television, and the bulk of my viewing is from DVD content, so I expect my RPTV to be a welcome addition.

 

[Frank@N]

I know a few people who have jumped in with affordable CRT-based RPTVs (~$1200).

They say DVD look great, but I imagine they don't know how to enabled 16x9 output from their DVD players.

When I'm over for a visit I notice that analog cable looks pretty bad and mention that an upgrade to Digital Cable w/ HD might be in order.

Still, you're stuck with pixel-laden Zoom for all non-HD stations.

I'll stick with my 4:3 CRT with 16x9 mode for now, analog cable and my DVDs look great.

 

[Scott Dautel]

DLP technology can not burn in (by definition).
This is a strong argument why, for now, 16:9 DLP sets may be the better choice for the family room TV. You can watch your DVDs widescreen and your 4:3 TV windowboxed with NO distortion. IMHO ... I cant see why anyone would want to "get used to" TV stretching distortion, but scream about OAR in the same breath.

Scott

 

[Lew Crippen]

Most of the TV I watch (except classic movies) is in 16:9 format. Almost all of the network prime-time programming (except for reality shows and a couple of sitcoms) is in 16:9. Plus HBO HD, ESPN HD etc. And a lot of sports on the weekend.

Of course this means that you need to be watching HD, not SD.

I don’t stretch when watching 4:3 (expect perhaps for some talking head shows like the news)—I do use gray sidebars which helps avoid burn-in.

Just my opinion, but I think that as long as you have used a disk like VE or AVIA to calibrate your set—so that the contrast and color settings are not so high as many factory settings) and you watch a reasonable amount of widescreen, you should be OK.

I love my HD widescreen so much I bought another for my bedroom.

 

[nick_rh]

On my HDTV I watch a pretty good mix of DVDs, HD shows on my STB, and non-HD shows on my DirecTivo. No, I don't love stretching the non-HD shows, I don't think I'll ever *completely* get used to it, but it definitely doesn't ruin the picture. (In fact, on Simpsons and other animated stuff, I don't even notice it at all.) And if watching non-HD shows were my primary concern, I wouldn't have bought an HDTV in the first place. I bought it for the privilege of watching DVDs in their full widescreen glory and seeing some of my favorite shows (Alias, CSI, Angel) in brilliant HD.

 

[ChuckSolo]

I must say that having a widescreen HDTV now since last Monday, I would never go back to an analog TV alone. Although regular broadcasts could look better and yes, 4:3 content needs to be stretched, I find that it isn't that bad at all. Most new HD RPTVs have, what on my RCA is called, "Cinerama" mode. This stretches the sides of the picture but leaves the center pretty much in tact so that the distortion is only really noticable at the extreme edges of the screen. I used to think my DVD collection looked fantastic on my 36" Direct View non- HD Panny, but after getting my RCA, I think they look incredible now. I don't think I would get a smaller screen size ever again. Having a larger screen just seems to put the "Theater" in "Home Theater," if you know what I mean.

 

[John S]

I watch more HDTV feed than anything else.

Errked me that ESPN HD didn't carry the Colorado -vs- St. Louis NHL game last night. So last night I watched the game via 480p output by the cable box. It wasn't to bad, I still think the non-digital regular cable feed would of been better. I need to get a quality spliter, so I can compare. The strongest best looking channels look a little better out the HD Cable Box, but the week channels stink, and regular cable using either my TV's NTSC tuner or my SVHS VCR's NTSC tuner is much better.

 

[Allan Jayne]

Turn down the contrast to well less than half and you should not have "burn in" problems.

I never stretch 4;3 programs on my widescreen unless there are people watching and sitting way off to the sides.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Peter Ping]

Is there a burn-in problem for a widescreen CRT direct view HDTV? How about using the normal mode with gray or dark side bars for 4:3 programs?

 

[Frank@N]

I think any CRT *could* be affected by 'burn-in' or 'uneven wear' if a portion screen is used more than others.

Or if there are stationary images on a portion of the screen for long periods of time.

High contrast would probably accelerate this issue.

Makes me wonder about the amount of time I spend watching movies in 16x9 mode on my 4:3 CRT.

But my contrast is at about 1/3 of Max and I do watch TV the other half of the time.