I have a Samsung HP-S5053. I'm trying to deal with the black side bars in 4:3 ratio. I'm starting to see very faint image rentention from these bars. I would like to change the bars from black to grey, in order to help with this. I have read other threads on another samsung model, where you can turn the TV off, press menu, and stretch the 4:3. Does anyone know if I can do that on this model? Thanks!

The 5053 only gives you the option of black bars. If you have Dish then you set them through the Dish receiver. But either black or grey is not the answer because you will never "age" the pixels at the same rate as the 4:3 portion of the screen. The only answer is to learn to live with 4:3 content stretched

How do you stretch the 4:3? With an HDMI cable the TV only gives the option of either 16:9 or 4:3. You can't zoom. If I'm watching non-HD channels I'm in 16:9 yet the picture is 4:3 with the bars. How do you stretch the 4:3?

How do you stretch the 4:3? With an HDMI cable the TV only gives the option of either 16:9 or 4:3. You can't zoom. If I'm watching non-HD channels I'm in 16:9 yet the picture is 4:3 with the bars. How do you stretch the 4:3?

Either the "format" button on the remote or through your receiver. I don't know if you are using cable or satellite

I'm using cable. I don't have a format button on my remote, and I've looked at all the setup in my cable box, and I don't see anything. I use to have it set up so that when i was watching non-HD channels, I would flip the input and the signal would be recieved through RCA cables. I'm wondering if there is a way to stretch the 4:3 without haveing to switch the input?

I'm using cable. I don't have a format button on my remote, and I've looked at all the setup in my cable box, and I don't see anything. I use to have it set up so that when i was watching non-HD channels, I would flip the input and the signal would be recieved through RCA cables. I'm wondering if there is a way to stretch the 4:3 without haveing to switch the input?

I have the 5053 and you have the 5054. You should have a format button on the lower left side of the Samsung remote.

I have a 5053 and I don't have a format button on the samsung remote. The closest would be an auto program button.