pt-51hx41 as a 16:9

[lonestar]

i have a panny 51" 4:3 hdtv. when watching 16:9 HDTV, I understand I lose some reolution with the black bars and what not. however, i can go in to the service menu and change a setting so the TV behaves as the 47" 16:9 model. I understand these two tvs have the same guts. So if I change my TV to the 16:9 setting, will I still be losing the same amount of resolution on a 1080i feed? Or will it be all there?

[dcarpa]

I am very interested to see if you have found out anything. First because i have the hx40 model - the difference here being that the TV is not even capable of having the screen switch to a 16:9 picture so all content no matter the res is displayed in the full 4:3 window - stretching the picture horribly (this model was basically pulled and the hx41 was released that had an internal switcher). I did end up using a Panasonic tu-dst52 for OTA HD since it has that option in it to force the letterbox, but it leaves me without the option for cable tv.

My main question and which is what i've been discussing with panasonic is that is this really a hd tv. HD is defined as the resolution ina 16:9 window, so if some res is lost in the compression than it no longer is defined has hi-def (and since the TVs dont support 720p only the 1080i applies).

Dmetacarpa@yahoo.com

[57U]

Many times service menu items are written for many model numbers and a lot of the stuff may not apply to your specific TV.

I did hear an interesting one about a Samsung 27" TV the other day. Someone found a similar code that turns an EDTV (accepts 480P only) into an HDTV (1080i). May be just be urban myth... Or perhaps Sammy do put the same tube into both TVs (one for $500, the other for $700.)

[dcarpa]

I think i agree. According to the panasonic service manual (I guess the one we are not supposed to have) it does have a hexadecimal software switch that I can program the TV I have (pt61hx40) so it thinks its either a 4:3 or a 16:9. The manual I am using is for the hx41 models and thats when it switched to the normal type service menu, mine is totally in hexadecimal format so I can't tell which one to change - I have found the full screen convergence and other items I need, but occasionally changing a setting on a guess has really done some horrible things (i havent fainted yet, but almost, no damage so far).