Watching DVD's

[ponch0069]

I'm planning on buying the Sony kp51hw40. I live in Albuquerque, NM and it seems like we will not get OTA HD until probably the final deadline is set in stone. So my main viewing on this TV for a while will be DVD's. I had a salesperson connect a DVD player thru one of the component video inputs. I put in Shrek which states on the box that it is enhanced for 16:9 tvs. But I still had to stretch it to fill the screen and when I put in The Matrix ,even after stretching it, it did not fill the screen. It does not make sence to me that movies that are enhanced for 16:9 do not fill the screen without stretching it. Do anamorphic widescreen DVD's fit the screen without stretching? I didn't try any anamorphic DVD's. One more ?. On my Directv receiver it has an opition to pick either 4:3 or 16:9 screen size. Does anyone know if this is a stretch mode built into the receiver?
Thanks for any replies,
Sorry for the long post.
David

[57U]

1. "Anamorphic" and "Enhanced for Widescreen" are the same thing. They are meant to be "stretched" only in the horizontal direction and will then have the aspect ratio written on the DVD. "Standard" DVDs will need to be stretched vertically and horizontally to be viewed properly.

2. Apect ratios are different for different movies. Some are 2.35:1, some are 1.85:1 (approx. 16:9), some are 1.33:1 (Regular TV). There are sometimes others with different aspect ratios.

3. If you have a widescreen TV and you have your DVD player set at "16:9", a 1.85:1 movie will "fill" the screen. A 2.35:1 movie will leave "bars" at the top and bottom, while a 4:3 movie (1.33) will leave "bars" at the sides.

Type anamorphic into your favourite search engine and read more on these explanations on the web.

4. As for your receiver, this probably just allows you to properly view the "receiver menu items" properly on your TV. This should not have any affect on the DVDs, but your DVD menu setup will, and should be set to 16:9 (or widescreen) if you have a Widescreen TV

5. Search this forum for threads on Widescreen and 4:3 for further discussion.

[JoeInBH]

You didn't ask about it, but I wanted to chime in that with this TV there is no reason to buy a progressive scan DVD player. I have this model and the built in line doubler automatically gives you progressive scan. This is something I didn't understand before purchasing a progressive scan DVD player. I can toggle the progressive mode on and off on the DVD player and there's absolutely no difference. Just FYI.

Joe

[57U]

Joe, you are correct that it can be very difficult to see the picture difference between DVD players with progressive scan and without. As a matter of fact, most people can toggle between composite video, S-video and component video and not see a difference (most of the difference is with motion artifacts and a bit of colour).

This does not mean there is no difference. A 480i signal although upconverted in most HDTVs is not as good as a 480P. 480P is "considered" high definition (Fox uses it for their HD programming). Purists still stick to 1080i. However 480i is not high definition. A good standard 480i signal will look excellent on a TV with good upconversion. Some TVs do a better job than others.

For example, I'm very happy with my 3-year old Toshiba DVD player, but it has component video outputs and is a very high quality unit. I won't replace it until I need to, but if you're in the market for a new DVD player, check out the progressive scan units, stay away from the really cheap ones and definitely get one with componenet video outputs if your TV has the inputs.

[ponch0069]

Thanks, for the replays. I did a search and got alot of ?'s answered. My tv is being delivered tommorow. I actully stepped up to the 57" model. Can't wait to see "the 5th element" on it.
David