Hitachi 16x9 Smooth Stretch mode (1 Viewer)

[Bill_S]

Well, my 43 inch Hitachi (43UWX10B) was delivered yesterday. It will be a week before my Dish 6000 receiver is up and running and so I have no HD to watch at this point. That smooth stretch mode that only stretches the outside parts of the picture is not really very attractive. Yes, I have read about how in one week I will not see it anymore. The truth of the matter is that I do not want to become oblivious to distorted images.
So that leaves me watching a lot of programming in 4X3 mode with gray bars. The manual has a small section on picture burn-in. It says to stay away from video games, stock market quotations, computer generated graphics, and other fixed (non-moving) patterns. Are those gray bars fixed (non-moving) patterns? It does not specifically name them. If they are, why would they build them into a TV a mode that does destruction and is not covered by the warranty? I am hoping that they are acceptable, for those "fat people" are giving me a headache.

 

[RandyS]

Bill,
I just received my Hitachi 61UWX10B last week. I swapped the 61UDX10B (4:3) for this unit. I was bound and determined to get used to the bloating edges when converting 4:3 materiel into 16:9. I keep telling my mind that HDTV and HDnet is going to be worth the 16:9 format. Football games were the true test. Since I have DirectTV and the NFL package, I found that the PIP on the 16:9 is awesome and a Godsend! Plus you can't beat Band of Brothers and The Sopranos in 16:9!! When my wife began watching in the "smooth wide" mode she hated it. It is okay until the characters move to the outside edges, as you said, and they get "fat". I'm getting used to it. I have not seen HDTV yet, my very last piece of equipment (RCA transcoder for the DTC-100 ) will arrive today. I've spent the last SIX months amassing my HT and HDTV equipment and I am hoping that tonight will bear all of my fruits of labor. I will be running Video Essentials tonight and hope to take a look at HDnet soon thereafter.
You can't beat the picture when viewing DVDs. I wish you luck and enjoy your new set.
P.S. Sorry but I can't answer the grey bar question!

 

[Dan Driscoll]

Well, my 43 inch Hitachi (43UWX10B) was delivered yesterday. It will be a week before my Dish 6000 receiver is up and running and so I have no HD to watch at this point. That smooth stretch mode that only stretches the outside parts of the picture is not really very attractive. Yes, I have read about how in one week I will not see it anymore. The truth of the matter is that I do not want to become oblivious to distorted images.

The horrible stretch modes are why Hitachi came off my list. I made several attempts to convince myself that I could get use to it, but it didn;t work. Toshiba and Pioneer both have much better stretch, zoom and expand modes and those are the sets I am considering now.
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Dan

 

[Paul W]

Bill, yes you can burn in the grey bars (especially if you leave your contrast setting on torch mode (i.e. 100%).
A friend of mine burned his grey bars inside of 2 months.
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Link Removed Paul Warren
Hey fella . . . I bet you're still livin' in your parent's cellar . . . downloading pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar . . . and posting "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er . . . I should do the world a favor and cap ya' like Old Yeller . . . you're just about as useless as MPEGs [sic] to Hellen Keller.