Help on DVD - 16:9 view on Hitachi 53" Widescreen (1 Viewer)

[Ed Nag]

Just purchased an Hitachi 53" widescreen and have a question on viewing DVDs. In normal widescreen view, I still see 2 black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Not as large as I would get with a letterbox view on a 4:3 TV but there nonetheless. I thought that with a widescreen, the picture would fill up the whole screen. I can zoom on my DVD player (JVC), but I would lose a little of the picture. My salesman at CC said that that was the result of the formatting of film itself; the Hitachi tech support had no idea what I was talking about. I think that I can use the stretch mode (wide stretch) on the TV, but again, this is not what I thought would happen. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Jerry C]

Sounds like a little basic information is in order here. I think your questions can be answered with the information available through these links:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...reenorama.html
http://www.widescreenadvocate.com/
Basically, you're looking at a movie that was shot in anamorphic scope, which has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and such movies will have black bars top and bottom on a 16:9 screen. Don't zoom! Put your Hitachi in Full mode and enjoy.
I have the Hitachi 43", by the way. Your Full aspect ration will work the same way on the 53".
Hope this helps.