Well I have had my plasma for about six weeks now and Now that I have become accustomed to my TV's stretch modes and the way regular SD programming look stretched I can't go back to "normal" 4:3.

I was watching some SD TV and needed to watch the weather ticker and went to the normal 4:3 mode and everything looked funny to me. I know it was correct but after watching in my TV's various stretch modes it drives me crazy to watch standard TV now.

I can't wait until everything is HD so I don't have this problem! :D

Am I alone with this or anyone else think the same thing?

dazed

I can't wait until everything is HD so I don't have this problem


Not everything is going HD !!

It's all going Digital sometime in 2009.

I guess I’m just the opposite, it drives me nuts to go into a bar or someone’s house and they have a 4:3 signal playing stretched and the players look like munchkins. :eek:

The debate of what AR is best is endless but I watch everything in the AR it was first filmed in. :)

It seems to depend on the 4:3 content for me. Some stuff can look surprisingly good stretched and other stuff looks awful.

Yeah, the more HD the better. Almost all the main shows I watch are now in HD and other stuff that I like that is in HD just hasn't made it up to Canada yet.

I guess I’m just the opposite, it drives me nuts to go into a bar or someone’s house and they have a 4:3 signal playing stretched and the players look like munchkins. :eek:

The debate of what AR is best is endless but I watch everything in the AR it was first filmed in. :)

I do watch movies in the OAR however just not TV shows.

dazed

I guess I’m just the opposite, it drives me nuts to go into a bar or someone’s house and they have a 4:3 signal playing stretched and the players look like munchkins. :eek:

The debate of what AR is best is endless but I watch everything in the AR it was first filmed in. :)

Yup, stretched material with the exception of material that is MEANT to be stretched like 4:3 Anamorphic dvds meant to be stretched to 16:9 drives me crazy. Whenever I go to a car dealership, bar, electronics store, I "fix" 16:9 tvs displaying 4:3 sd content to show the correct 4:3 aspect ratio.
Luckily Hooters shows UFC in the correct aspect ratio.

I guess I’m just the opposite, it drives me nuts to go into a bar or someone’s house and they have a 4:3 signal playing stretched and the players look like munchkins. :eek:

The debate of what AR is best is endless but I watch everything in the AR it was first filmed in. :)

I can't stand to risk burned in side bars more than it annoys me :D

I can't stand to risk burned in side bars more than it annoys me :D

That's why they make LCD displays. I just don't understand why some people "must" have plasma or CRT for the virtually non-existent advantage over LCD, then make a major image degradation like altering the OAR of the program.

I have been using LCD front projectors and flat panels for years, with letterbox and sidebox bars, and I've never had any burn-in damage. The three main AR's in order of popularity are 1.33:1, 1.78:1, and 2.35:1, and at most your screen can only match one source AR.

I can't stand to risk burned in side bars more than it annoys me :D

I personally think the "burn in" problem is overstated. If your tv is set up right and not in "Torch Mode" you have a lot less risk of the dreaded burn in.

During my movie watching I watch in the "native" AR what ever that may be. While watching these movies I don't worry about the possibility of burn in and I watch a lot of movies.

dazed

I personally think the "burn in" problem is overstated. If your tv is set up right and not in "Torch Mode" you have a lot less risk of the dreaded burn in.

During my movie watching I watch in the "native" AR what ever that may be. While watching these movies I don't worry about the possibility of burn in and I watch a lot of movies.

dazed

Same here.........

Been running my Panny Plasma for several years now and never worried about it! ;)

Same here.........

Been running my Panny Plasma for several years now and never worried about it! ;)

I couldn't agree more. Got my first plasma in March '03 (when chicken littles everywhere were saying that just using an on-screen menu would cause irreparable damage). I was careful for about a week, forgot that there was any potential for harm and have been using it carefree for years. The idea that 5 years later we now have "break-in DVDs" and people petrified to use their displays to their liking and there are still people who think that watching a show with a logo on the bottom for an hour or 2 is the end of the world seems very funny to me. Ask around, try to find more than a few plasma owners that have actually experienced permanent burn-in where the tv hasn't been on torch mode, paused for a day or had a ticker running for weeks. . . wow, sorry for the rant. I think I went off-topic here!

I can't stand to risk burned in side bars more than it annoys me :D

When my black bars burn into my 4:3 screen I just get out my “super secret” gallon of DIY screen paint and paint them out. :eek:

But they don’t bother me too much, but mine are on the top and bottom.:D
http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/20/2021147720068493142S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2021147720068493142OBVzGy)

I actually do experience IR quite a bit especially with the Dish "screen saver" or say if I start a DVD and the menu screen appears and then I get side tracked for 15-20 minutes. Those stationary or semi stationary images produce IR however they are GONE in just a few minutes of normal TV watching and it only slightly bothered me the first time it happened until I realized what it actually was.

What mode do all of you watch 4:3 material in? I rarely watch in 4:3 but I started out with the 4:3 stretch mode and now I find I am using the 16:9 mode more often due to the fact it cuts less of the "tickers" and weather advisories off.

One fact I do like about my Hitachi it gives me the option to change my "pillar boxes" from gray to black. That is a nice feature.


dazed

What mode do all of you watch 4:3 material in? I rarely watch in 4:3 but I started out with the 4:3 stretch mode and now I find I am using the 16:9 mode more often due to the fact it cuts less of the "tickers" and weather advisories off


dazed

I don't watch very much 4:3 Programming,but when I do,I just leave it at 4:3....Don't like to Stretch it !

I don't watch very much 4:3 Programming,but when I do,I just leave it at 4:3....Don't like to Stretch it !

+1

I don't like to stretch either. I can't get past the way stretching 4:3 looks no matter how you do it.

Regards,

RTROSE

That's why they make LCD displays. I just don't understand why some people "must" have plasma or CRT for the virtually non-existent advantage over LCD, then make a major image degradation like altering the OAR of the program.



OMG.... :rolleyes:
Myth spread much?

I can't stand the look of stretched 4:3. And it seems everywhere you go, people and businesses have these nice 16:9 HDTV's and they're feeding it SDTV stretched to fill the screen...and call it HD. Sports bars need to get a clue!

Anyway, I hate the gray side bars that my TW box adds to my 4:3. Anyone know how to get rid of those?

I can't stand the look of stretched 4:3. And it seems everywhere you go, people and businesses have these nice 16:9 HDTV's and they're feeding it SDTV stretched to fill the screen...and call it HD. Sports bars need to get a clue!

Anyway, I hate the gray side bars that my TW box adds to my 4:3. Anyone know how to get rid of those?

I know on my Hitachi you have the option to select gray or black in the video menu. It will revert back to gray when the TV is shut off and turned on again.

Maybe in the setup menu of your cable box there is a sub menu that will allow you to select black bars.

dazed

Some panels do a much better job of "intelligently" stretching the 4:3 programs, but unfortunately, I don't own one of these. So, I set everything to pass standard AR to the sets, and enjoy the programming, even with the black bars. To that poster that added the LCD comment above, I'd have to say that there aren't many LCDs out there that can provide black bars...mainly deeper gray bars, and I find that disturbing at times.