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Please no 16:9 hype, just honest opinions of watching sports on a 16:9 set needed? (1 Viewer)

J

John Morris

I keep trying to convince myself to get a 16:9 RPTV (specifically a Toshiba 57H81). Recently, I went into my BB with a VHS tape with various sports, mostly racing and baseball and football. When watching this tape using a composite input, the only mode I found satisfactory was the Theaterwide 2 mode which zooms but does not distort the image. The problem with this mode is that on this TV, the top and bottom "stats area" was cut off. This means that any scrolling scores, stats and in the nascar race, the car positions, were cut off and unreadable.
Since then, I have since been told by a dealer that the TV I was using must have had some bad overscan and that a properly adjusted 57H81 does not have the top and bottom stats cut off while using Theatermode 2.
So, my question is, to all of you 16:9 owners, does the zoom mode cut off the stat bars on your TV sets?
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merc
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Tracy B

Auditioning
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Aug 14, 2001
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I have the 47" Panny 16:9. I, too, am very into sports (Go OSU Beavers!!!!!). On the Panny, there is an aspect setting called JUST that stretches the picture more at the edgest than in the middle - I think your Tosh has a similar mode. The effect is slight. I now watch ALL 4:3 material in this mode and am very pleased with the effect. It is all a case of getting used to some very slight differences in the ratio.
At first, it would take maybe 5-15 minutes before I stopped noticing that figures at the edge of the set were a slight bit 'squatty'. Now, I don't notice it a bit. I must say that watching football - even in stretch mode is much more pleasing than in 4:3 because the screen enhances the shape of the field and it feels more like you're "at the game".
Trust me, you will not even notice the difference after about 2 weeks.
 

Brian Mello

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I'm watching the Colts/Vikings game right now on my 47" Panny via my local Digital Fox Broadcast and it looks awesome. Good Source will give you a good picture.
 

Brian Glaeske

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Properly calibrated TW2 WILL chop top and bottom off of the picture. This is the mode you use typically for non-anomorphic DVD's.
I actually watch football in Full mode. Short and fat football players don't really bother me. Shots of the cheerleaders make to fumble for the remote to change to standard or something!
If I bothered to converge TW1 or TW3, neither is that bad for sports either, but you still lose a little.
Brian G.
 

Larry Schneider

Second Unit
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Aug 9, 1999
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You can always watch in "Standard" with grey bars on the sides if it's absolutely essential...Toshibas have the ability to scroll the TW2 picture up or down to take more off the top than the bottom and vice-versa. Some football broadcasts have the score/clock box within the 16x9 screen when zoomed.
Remember, football and racing are side-to-side sports, and while you might miss the artificial stuff at the top or bottom, the action looks great.
 

Scott Merryfield

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I have a Toshiba 56H80 and watch a lot of sports -- pro/college football, hockey, golf and college basketball. I use Toshiba's Theaterwide 1 (TW1) mode, which stretches the picture at the edges more than in the middle, but does not crop very much off the top/bottom (you can still see the running score ticker on ESPN2). The only sport that I do not care for in this mode is golf. I prefer seeing the proper distance perspective for greens, fairway widths, etc. So for golf, I usually use the NORMAL mode, which windowboxes the image with side gray bars.
Once the TV is properly calibrated and converged, the picture quality in stretch mode is acceptable to me, provided you have a good source signal. Our CATV system actually provides a decent picture for cable. I may try watching some football this fall through my new HDTV OTA tuner, though. In this case, I will be pretty much confined to windowbox mode, since all the local channels broadcast their 480i material this way.
Now, if CBS, Fox and ABC would only start broadcasting the NFL in HDTV, this problem would be greatly reduced. I am really looking forward to seeing some college games in HDTV on CBS this fall.
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[Edited last by Scott Merryfield on August 25, 2001 at 09:02 AM]
 
J

John Morris

Thank you everyone for all your advice and observations!!!
I guess I was hoping that someone had discovered a magic bullet for watching 4:3 broadcast sports. Unfortunately for me, it is looking like I'm gonna end up getting a 4:3 Toshiba 61H71 RPTV.
As for me, it really bothered me when I used the side stretch (Just)modes for sports. When an athlete ran across the screen, he went from fat to normal to fat. It also slightly skewed the distance perception from left to right. In my searches, none of the stretch modes, that I saw, worked for me. I might eventually get used to it, but I'd always be looking for those distortions instead of the OLB blitzes.
Being able to scroll the Zoomed Toshiba screen would be a help. How do you do that? But, one other thing I didn't mention earlier was that the zoom mode looks a little "fuzzier" than a normal or stretched image. I think that may be because of the zoom itself. Still, being able to tell the "down and needed yardage" and the "race order" is an important part of watching sports to me.
Finally, the grey bar, normal mode is always a possiblility for me. Of course, the downside is that you get a comparably smaller image, run the slight risk of burn in and of course, you got those dang grey bars.
In the end, I keep coming back to the inevitable fact that most of my current and near future viewing is gonna be 4:3 formatted. It seems that getting a 61" 4:3 HDTV that does anamorphic squeeze will give me everything that I want in a new TV. Everything, that is, but a sexy looking 16:9 set in my HT...
frown.gif

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Take Care,
merc
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DFAST, 5C, DVI, HDCP, SafeAudio, Macrovision and Lewinski!!!
[Edited last by John Morris on August 25, 2001 at 09:30 AM]
 

Stefan A

Second Unit
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May 27, 2001
Messages
397
The most accurate mode on the new Toshibas for 4:3 material (other than standard) is the theater 1 mode. I have never used theater 2 or 3 for anything. They seem useless to me. With theater 1, everythig looks fairly natural in all parts of the screen. The most obvious distortion in theater 1 is a panning shot or when a message is scrolling across the screen. The end of the picture look bent.
Stefan Antwarg
 

Scott Merryfield

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quote: I have never used theater 2 or 3 for anything. They seem useless to me. [/quote]
TW2 is very useful for watching films broadcast in letterbox on television, as well as watching non-anamorphic widescreen DVD's (if your DVD player cannot perform the zoom/scaling itself). TW2 zooms (without distorting) the proper amount to remove the side gray bars, and will not crop the top/bottom image of a 1.85:1 or wider film. Basically, you get a larger image with no distortion or loss of image. The only drawback is the decreased resolution due to the zoom.
I do agree that TW3 mode is pretty useless.
Being able to scroll the Zoomed Toshiba screen would be a help. How do you do that?
There is a selection in the Theaterwide menu area that will allow you to move the image up/down with the cursor keys. Since I only use TW2 for letterbox film viewing (and very little of that since getting a Panasonic RP-91 that performs the zoom/scaling better than the TV's zoom), I never use this feature.
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My DVD Collection
AFI 100 Films to watch: 40 -> 5
[Edited last by Scott Merryfield on August 25, 2001 at 10:40 AM]
 

Matt Heebner

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241
I have a Mitsubishi 55" widescreen, and I have watched most of the pre-season games on it in its "stretched" mode. Only the very leftmost and rightmost 4 inches or so are stretched, and I don't even see it. I have had people over for football, and for play-off basketball, and not one person even mentioned it. (and they would have, trust me)
Yea, at first it takes some getting used to. After about a week, like said before, I don't even see it. My wife doesn't even see it either, and she was a big critic of thew stretch mode when we got it.
Also, in a few years when HD programming becomes more common, especially with sports....you will be glad that you have a 16:9 TV, as I don't think a 4:3 can do justice to a 16:9 HD broadcast.
Matt
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J

John Morris

as I don't think a 4:3 can do justice to a 16:9 HD broadcast
Matt: wouldn't the HD Image on a 61" 4:3 set be identical to the image on a 55" 16:9 set? If not, what would be different?
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Take Care,
merc
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DFAST, 5C, DVI, HDCP, SafeAudio, Macrovision and Lewinski!!!
 

Brian Mello

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Messages
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Matt: wouldn't the HD Image on a 61" 4:3 set be identical to the image on a 55" 16:9 set? If not, what would be different?
You will just have black or grey bars on the top and bottom of the image. Either way (4:3 or 16:9 TV) you will have to live with some bars or stretched mode. :)
 

John-D

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Feb 27, 2001
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Well made mattes take care of the black bars on the top and bottom.. 16:9 transmissions are still 4 years away.. unless you watch 2 widescreen anamorphic movies a day, 4:3 is still a good choice if any kind of distortion while stretching is unacceptable.
I heard the new Toshiba's have a built in orbiting feature.. maybe you can try using that for 4:3 material windowed inside a 16:9 tv..
Boy am I glad i didn't have to make those choices.. it's tough when most available programming is 4:3 and you want your sets to be 'future proof'.
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