which setting on my dvd player?!?!? (1 Viewer)

[ErikU]

i have a 27" toshiba 4:3 television. my toshiba dvd is hooked up to the tv via component jacks. the dvd player gives 3 options: 4:3 letterbox, 4:3 normal, and 16:9 widescreen. what setting is the best to watch dvds in? i like oar so widescreen is the key. i am not sure if i should use 16:9 or 4:3 letterbox. what are the advantages/disadvantages to using either on a nonwidescreen tv?

thanks

erik

 

[Tim Hoover]

If you use 16:9, then anamorphic DVDs will be squeezed into your 4:3 picture area. If you use 4:3 letterbox, then everything will be letterboxed if it is widescreen, anamorphic or not.

 

[Thom B]

Hey Erik,

Here's a bit more detail.

16:9- This setting is for players hooked up to a widescreen tv. It allows full resolution display of anamorphic titles on these sets. An anamorphic title will look kinda squished side to side on your set with this setting.

4:3 letterbox- This should be the setting you want to use for OAR viewing. With this setting anamorphic titles will be downcoverted and shown with the infamous black bars. Non-anamorphic titles will be properly displayed.

4:3 normal- I'm not directly familiar with this setting. None of the players I've had have had it. I'm assuming it's some sort of auto-zoom feature which fills the screen of a 4:3 set on titles which are letterboxed or anamorphic.

Hope this helps.

T

 

[Sean Conklin]

4:3 normal- I'm not directly familiar with this setting. None of the players I've had have had it. I'm assuming it's some sort of auto-zoom feature which fills the screen of a 4:3 set on titles which are letterboxed or anamorphic.

4:3 Normal is the same as 4:3 Pan and Scan, this mode was originally designed to Pan and Scan specially encoded Widescreen DVD's, but this format never really took off and there are very few of these encoded DVD's around.

The advice above is correct, just set your DVD player to 4:3 Letterbox, unless your Tosh has Wide or squeeze mode.

 

[ErikU]

thanks for the info!

erik