Cropping issue in 4:3 mode... (1 Viewer)

[Dale MA]

I bought a Hitachi 42PD6600 a few weeks ago and after using the DVE disc I'm very happy with it, except for one small issue I've found which I'm hoping someone can help me with.

I watch a lot of 1.33:1 content & I like to see movies in there original aspect ratio (I don't like stretching the image to fill the screen), so I watch that stuff with the gray bars on the side of the image.

Anyway, I was watching a 1.33:1 film and I paused it, then I messed around with the display settings and to my shock the "stretch" mode actually revealed more picture on the top & bottom of the image, meaning that the 4:3 mode was cropping the picture information on the top & bottom.

Anyone else noticed this on there plasmas or know what the cause of this may be?

I've taken two images of my set to show you exactly what I mean (I've included URLs to the images because they're huge). It shows my TV playing the DVD "Dial M For Murder" which is a 1.33:1 film.

This first picture is of my TV on 4:3 / Auto mode, which SHOULD be giving me the full picture, allow me to draw your attention to the letters "PRS" underneath the "Dial M For Murder" logo -- they're chopped in half, only half of those letters are shown in the frame.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b...es/Image100.jpg

This next picture is of my TV in 4:3 / Full mode, meaning it's stretching the 1.33:1 film to fill my screen, allow me to again draw your attention to the letters "PRS" which can now be completely seen underneath the "Dial M For Murder" logo -- the complete letters "PRS" can now be seen, now compare that to the shot above.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b...es/Image101.jpg

There's also some cropping issues on the top of the frame, in 4:3 / Auto mode the letters "JKL" are very slightly cropped but in Full / Auto mode they're more visible.

Another question I have is: do 1.33:1 ratio films on DVD have an area of picture around the border that's not supposed to be seen on screen? It's very doubtful but never say never & all that...

Anyway, any help from the experts would be great

 

[Mark Techer]

I don't think that your links work, but my 16:9 projector does the same thing that you have just described...

Mark

 

[Dale MA]

Sorry about that Mark, here are my images:





Maybe it's because it's a widescreen set it can't show the entire 1.33:1 image so it has to crop, it is only very slight but it's definitely there.

 

[Allan Jayne]

Can you fine tune the width and height? Your TV may have been calibrated to have some overscan.

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

 

[Dale MA]

I've had a quick flick through the manual and there doesn't seem to be any feature that allows you to change the width & height. There's not even a "nudge" function to movie the picture even slightly.

 

[Mark Techer]

I really only noticed it with mine with some text and then found that I could shift the height, but there is some compromise to be made because there is no setting for vertical squeeze - which would be helpful seeing how I am now using an anamorphic lens to obtain a 2.35:1 constant height setup...

Mark