HDMI Cable/Aspect Ration Button Question (1 Viewer)

[Jason Hughes]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this. My Panasonic widescreen TV (hi-def, not flat panel, about two years old, don't know the model # offhand) has an HDMI input/output.

I bought some cables ($20 ones at Sam's Club). The picture quality is light years better than the component cables I was using. My problem is this: with the HDMI (just like my hi-def cable) I cannot change the aspect ratio. Not a huge deal, but non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs (especially ones that are 2.35:1) look way too distorted, whereas on the component set up, I would watch them in zoom mode and they looked pretty decent. Ditto for full screen DVD's (I preferred zoom over full or just).

Is there any way around this?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Mark-P]

It sounds like the HDMI input with your TV is fixed at full mode or, on the other hand maybe your DVD player is one that upconverts to HD through the HDMI? In which case, most TVs don't have aspect ratio controls for an HD signal.

Have you looked to see if your DVD player has any aspect ratio settings?