cable or direct tv for wide screen (1 Viewer)

[MichaelDW]

will cable,or sat. fill the whole sreen on a hitachi 43"rptv? or will you have side bars

 

[BruceSpielbauer]

Not familiar with that model, but this may help.

Is this model a 16 X 9 wide-screen? If it is:

A "normal" cable broadcast will NOT automatically fill the screen. Neither will a "normal" satellite broadcast. Because of this, most people who are buying the widescreen sets use one of the set's so-called "stretch modes," which can stretch the picture, or zoom the picture, and crop part of it, or maybe even stretch and zoom together, in order to fill the entire screen.

Some sets do a better job at stretching the picture, so it not noticable, or barely noticable.

Now, I will qualify what I have said above... With satellite, it is quite possible to also pick up a true HDTV broadcast (with the correct equipment). Understand that this stuff _IS_ mostly in widescreen, and will fill the entire screen. Not many channels are yet available this way, but some are, on both DISH Network and Direct TV.

And, now, a few cable TV companies have also begun to offer true HDTV, as well. It depends on where you live. The same would go for THESE broadcasts, if it is avaliable from your local Cable company, and if you rent the proper box, and choose to subscribe to this.

Finally, many users especially those close to a big city, aare actually installing good old antennas, since they find that as many as ten or twelve of the local stations are now broadcasting a true HDTV signal, at least part of the day, and that much of this stuff is also in widescreen, and fills the entire screen on a 16 X 9 set. Depends on the community, of course.

Is this clear? If not, let us know, and we shall try again.

By the way, no matter what, users have to put up with occasional "black bands" or "black bars" at the edges. Those who choose 4 X 3 have the bars on widescreen DVDs, and will also have them on widescreen HDTV signals. Those who choose 16 X 9 widescreen sets have those bars when watching standard sat or cable stuff. The only solution is to use those stretch modes, which can eliminate those "black bars" most of the time.

-Bruce

 

[MichaelDW]

thanks

 

[Michael Cook]

I have Direct TV and it has a 16 X 9 mode. You have to be using S-video or greater to use it though. Not sure how the picture would look on a wide screen tv.

 

[Jerry C]

I've got the Hitachi 43UWX10b, which is the 16:9 model. Hitachi also makes a 43" 4:3.

If you have the 16:9 model and you're watching standard NTSC programming, you can use the Hitachi's Smooth Wide mode, which zooms the picture slightly and stretches the edges more than the center to make the image fill the 16:9 screen. This is the mode I use for standard cable broadcasts and the picture looks very good. Or you can use the Normal mode which will give you grey bars on the side. The choice is yours.

With HD broadcasts from either cable, satellite, or OTA antenna, put the TV in Full mode. This will fill the screen as the HD programming aspect ratio is 16:9.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jan Strnad]

If you've seen only the strangely-stretched images in your local store, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how natural some of the new stetching modes are.
The thing to remember, of course, is the format in which your most critical viewing takes place. If it's movies on DVD, you'll definitely want a widescreen set and you'll put up with the stretching on broadcast TV.
Jan