Why won't it go widescreen? (1 Viewer)

[Geoff H]

Got a friend with a Mitsu (WS55411 - Gold Plus) and Direct TV, and says that he cannot get any shows to go widescreen (from Direct TV, DVD's play just as they should). I'm not sure how to answer him so I thought I'd try the folks here.

He says Pearl Harbor (HBO) was on his small tv with black bars so he ran down to watch it widescreen on his, well, widescreen TV, but it just looked s t r e c h e d, said he tried all the different format modes with no success.

Any thoughts?

TIA

Geoff

 

[Brian L]

DTV is not anamorphic WS.

Anything that happens to be WS via DTV is letterboxed, so he will have to use one of the linear stretch modes to blow up the picture (note, this is the same process he would use on a non-anamorphic letterboxed DVD).

Not sure why that did not seem to work. Did the different modes change the picture at all?

Some TVs lock into full mode when getting a progressive signal, but I do not think that any DTV boxes will put out a progressive signal.

HBO sets everything to 1.78:1 so on a WS TV, it should fill the screen perfectly with no black bars, and the proportions should be correct.

BGL

 

[Darryl_B]

He says Pearl Harbor (HBO) was on his small tv with black bars so he ran down to watch it widescreen on his, well, widescreen TV, but it just looked s t r e c h e d, said he tried all the different format modes with no success.

I believe the Pearl Harbor DVD should have an anamorphic widescreen version of the film. It may still have small black bars if the movie is in any other ration besides 1.78:1. If it's stretched, then he has something set wrong - it could be the TV format setup on the DVD player, or he could be using the wrong screen format setting on the TV (make sure he's has it in Full mode).

 

[Don_Berg]

The Pearl Harbor DVD is anamorphic widescreen with a 2.35:1 AR, so there are black bars no mater what.

 

[Robert_J]

When I watch a letterbox (non-anamorphic) show on my 55411, I use the Expand mode to format it to 1.78:1. But like Don said, if there were showing it in it's original aspect ratio or 2.35:1, there would still be black bars (although they would be smaller).

-Robert

 

[Brian L]

Just another thought....

What type of DTV box does your friend have? My initial comment about DTV signals NOT being progressive is not true if you have one of the newer HD Sat boxes.

You could be getting 480p, 720p, or 1080i, depending on the set-up of the box. And further to that, your set may lock into full mode if you are sending it a HD or progressive signal.

If thats the case, you will need to make sure that the box is set to 480i.

BGL