Newbie Question about Sony RP LCD (1 Viewer)

[Bob_S]

Ok, I'm a newbie to all this stuff and seeing how this isn't my own personal tv, and I watch it for one week every 3 months, I haven't been able to figure this out. My dad has a Sony 50" RP LCD, hooked up to a Sony 5 Disc Progressive DVD player. They are connected through Component video and the dvd player is set to progressive auto. So my question is, why must whenever we watch a DVD do we have to use the TV's wide feature to stretch the image to full screen size? The picture will be in normal 4:3 until we change from normal to full, zoom, or wide zoom. Why is this? It seems to me that this would allow for some deteriation in picture quality, not to mention the annoyance of having to figure out which setting gives the propper aspect ratio. The thing that confuses me is the HDTV comes in full screen as expected, and its also connected via component video. So can some explain to my why this is the way it is, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

You may need to "tell" the DVD player that the TV that it is connected to is a 16:9 widescreen set rather than a 4:3 one. There is usually a setting for this, just as there is on an HD cable box, DVR or satellite receiver. If you're using an a/v receiver as a switch you could also run into this problem. My JVC HD-ILA automatically handled aspect ratio settings for anamorphic material (though not, of course, for matted letterboxed material) from both my HD-DVR and my Sony DVD changer when they were connected directly. But when I connected them through my Onkyo receiver that DVDs stopped auto-switching - although the HD cable material still does it fine. Evidently the flag information on the DVDs is being lost somewhere in the circuitry. I've written Onkyo and posted messages in the appropriate sections both here and on other sites, but so far haven't received any replies.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Steve Schaffer]

On a Sony set, Full is the proper setting for watching anamorphic widescreen movies. Normal will horizontally squeeze the picture into a 4/3 area. Make sure the dvd player is set for 16/9 display, not 4/3.

 

[Mathias H]

The problem may also be the DVDs themselves. Are they widescreen or full screen DVDs?

I know it seems obvious, and I don't mean to be condescending, but there are a lot of pan-and-scan DVD's out there. Sometimes the solution is so obvious that we overlook it.

Kind of like when I can't get my computer to turn on, then I realize I have hit the switch on my power bar with my foot...