Please help.
First off I know quite a bit about aspect ratios and anamorphic widescreen and letterbox and all that jazz. I don't need help understanding it or even getting it to show up on my tv correctly.

What I do need is an inexpensive dvd player that will auto fit for a widescreen tv. It irks me to no end that I can buy any dvd player in the world and it will fit my 4:3 tv perfectly regardless of format. I have yet to find a dvd player that will do the same for 16:9 format tvs. It is quite strange that the dvd player I recently purchased (and will soon take back) has 1080P upscaling yet no way switch the output to pillarbox 4:3 content. The tv I have assumes that it will be correctly formatted when it is HDMI content and does not even have a 4:3 option when that is the case.

So please help me find a DVD player that will work to fit the content automatically. I don't even care what output it has so long as it is s-video or better as the tv upscales quite well.

Please help!!!

I guess that's because the ole 4:3 the resolution is known, so the player just does it automatically. With today's displays, the dvd player has no way of knowing what resolution the TV wants, maybe with some u can adjust manually, I dunno. If manual adjustment is acceptable to you.

Is HDMI a two-way intelligent interface? I dunno.

Please help.
First off I know quite a bit about aspect ratios and anamorphic widescreen and letterbox and all that jazz. I don't need help understanding it or even getting it to show up on my tv correctly.

What I do need is an inexpensive dvd player that will auto fit for a widescreen tv. It irks me to no end that I can buy any dvd player in the world and it will fit my 4:3 tv perfectly regardless of format. I have yet to find a dvd player that will do the same for 16:9 format tvs. It is quite strange that the dvd player I recently purchased (and will soon take back) has 1080P upscaling yet no way switch the output to pillarbox 4:3 content. The tv I have assumes that it will be correctly formatted when it is HDMI content and does not even have a 4:3 option when that is the case.

So please help me find a DVD player that will work to fit the content automatically. I don't even care what output it has so long as it is s-video or better as the tv upscales quite well.

Please help!!!

All of the OPPOs have a Wide/Auto setting which will pillarbox 4:3 titles on 16:9 displays. I believe it only works with upscaling resolutions, so you will need HDMI.

The cheapest OPPO is the 980H at $169 new, somewhat less refurbished.

-Bill

I guess that's because the ole 4:3 the resolution is known, so the player just does it automatically. With today's displays, the dvd player has no way of knowing what resolution the TV wants, maybe with some u can adjust manually, I dunno. If manual adjustment is acceptable to you.

Is HDMI a two-way intelligent interface? I dunno.

Shouldn't matter the resolution of the tv only the resolution of the output of the dvd player. It would not take much to add black bars to 4:3 content the same way dvd players add black bars to the content of 16:9 material for 4:3 screens.

The only difference in analog is the frequency of the generator for the black bars but that shouldn't be difficult. And in the digital outputs (HDMI) it should be trivial to add black bars to the content for 4:3 content on 16:9 screens.

Basically what I am saying is that even if it cost a few pennies more it seems that all dvd players with the capability of 16:9 output should have the ability to not stretch 4:3 outputs.

All of the OPPOs have a Wide/Auto setting which will pillarbox 4:3 titles on 16:9 displays. I believe it only works with upscaling resolutions, so you will need HDMI.

The cheapest OPPO is the 980H at $169 new, somewhat less refurbished.

-Bill

Thanks for at least pointing me at one DVD player but man that is so much compared to cheapos. I was really looking for under $100 I don't even need major quality just a normal name brand like Sony or Panasonic.

Check p18 of this manual for the Panasonic DVD-S54. It describes how to setup the player so it plays full screen movies in the proper aspect.

http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/DVDS54-MUL.PDF

Actually, until the Toshiba XDE-500 came along, I thought all players could handle 4:3 movies on 16:9 display properly.

Edit: Just checked the specs for a Denon DVD-1740 and it also has the setting to properly display 4:3 material on a 16:9 display. Which player is causing you a problem? Maybe you just missed a setting in the setup menu.

funky_munky,
My guess is you will want to avoid any of the Samsung models, including their blu-ray players.

Brian

Lordy, Lordy, I was just about to post a similar question when I found this string.

I am also very familiar with aspect ratios and in fact am a stickler for running everything in the correct format (my first job at age 14 was theater projectionist, so I learned early).

So here's the deal: My home theater runs with a HD projector throwing a standard 16/9 shot at a 106" screen. For about six months I've been running a Sony Blu-ray player as one of the sources, and during initial setup had no trouble telling it to run 4/3 material pillarboxed through the HDMI hookup. Fine.

I just added a Toshiba DVR620KU combo VHS/DVD recorder to the rack, because I want to start dubbing off some old tapes to disc. The thing works fine, but there seems to be no way I can tell it to pillarbox 4/3 discs (or even VHS tapes!) through the HDMI output. It runs 1.85 (er, I mean 16/9) material correctly from the DVD side, and by extension, all letterboxed scope material. But 4/3 material, disc or tape, is stretched to 16/9.

The only way I can get it to play 4/3 in proper aspect is through the composite output. Fortunately, I have a composite standby loop running to the projector, so I can run it through that. But I hate to revert to composite when the picture quality (except for the aspect ratio) is better via the HDMI upping.

Am I crazy? I've scoured the OM and the menus but can find no fix for this. The only aspect ratio setting in the menus is to select the ratio of the device you're sending the signal to. I even fiddled with that (knowing it wasn't what I was looking for, but who knows what gets screwed up in translation?). Anyway, that's not the solution.

It's amazing that the Blu-ray does this job so seamlessly and effortlessly, and yet this other box has no clue. It's literally unbelievable that a machine that is boosting VHS to HDMI doesn't let you output the HDMI signal in proper aspect.

Tell me I've missed something. Please.