HDTV Projection TV

[marine]

I recently talked to 2 different salesman at 2 different stores. I want to buy a big screen HDTV. One salesman wanted to sell me a 54" projection TV the other wanted to sell me a 54" widescreen projection tv. The reason for the wide screen, I was told is because HDTV is transmitted in a different format where if I do not have a widescreen TV then if I was receiveing the HD signal I would see blank spaces above and below the picture. If I bought a regular non widscreen TV would I see the blank spaces while trying to watch HDTV on Direct TV.

[Hook n Mouth]

that as long as there are broadcasts in both 4:3 and 16:9 formats, since your TV can only be one or the other, whenever you are watching an aspect ratio that is different than your TV, there will be bars on the top or side (black or grey). However, most TV's have adjustable aspect ratios so you can stretch or zoom the picture if you don't like the bars, and the picture will fill the whole screen. Personally, since most content is in 4:3 today and in the near future, I got a 4:3 set. Also, if you get a 16:9 set and watch alot of 4:3 programming, you can get burn in from the bars.

[zarlor]

That is essentially correct. The HDTV formats all have a rectangular, widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, while normal NTSC standard-definition transmissions are in the more square-shaped 4:3 aspect ratio. So watching a widescreen HDTV program on a 4:3 screen you will usually see it "letterboxed" with black bars at the top and bottom. Conversely if you watch a standard broadcast on a widescreen HDTV and do not have your set or receiver modify the picture at all you would see black (or grey) bars on the sides of the square picture (also called "windowboxing").

The benefits of a 16:9 set are that you, essentially, have more screen real estate to view programming on. Right now the only thing that really makes use of it are HDTV broadcast, regular broadcast programming that is "letterboxed" (which you can usually zoom in to see so it fills your 16:9 screen normally) and anamorpic (or widescreen) DVDs.

This is not to say that you still won't get some letterboxing on some types of programs, since 16:9 was a compromise format and not actually as wide as some films. But HD "made for TV" stuff should almost always be 16:9.

You shouldn't really lose too much resolution by going with a 4:3 set and if that is really all you can afford you might consider that format to at least get you started in HD (maybe getting a widescreen set some few years downt he road). But I think you will find that most HD and Home Theater afficianodos will definitely reccomend you go for the widescreen set if you can work it into your budget.

As for the question of burn-in mentioned above... if you get a good calibration DVD, such as "Avia" or "Video Essentials", you'll learn how to turn down your bightness and contrast to the proper levels and burn in should never be a problem for you except in some extreme situations.