Samsung PN43E450 - Wide screen or not?

It's definitely a widescreen 16:9 TV. I think the pixels are rectangular.

All modern Plasma TVs are16:9, which translates to a 1.78:1 screen ratio - regardless of the number and/or shape of the pixels. Nothing is being stretched.

Isn't your analysis going by a square pixel? If it's rectangular then it can cover more surface area.

I think you are right... something fishy. Perhaps the "spec sheet" is wrong.... you know how good some manufacturers are... these guys probably outsourced their web page to some low paid north american spec writers... :-) IF not, as the screen is a 16:9 aspect, that would mean that a "degree" of processing is going on to actually "compress" (ie. scale) a 720p signal to allow it to "stretch" logically back out on the display.
Edited by budwich - 3/17/13 at 9:59pm

probably. I think what some people were trying to point out was that the TV's display aspect ratio was indeed widescreen (ie. "16:9" physical measurement) based kind of your title question... perhaps it would have been better to pose "is it really only a 1024X768 resolution screen?". But as you have "investigated", you do have to read thru specs carefully as some manufacturers are playing games with resolutions.

IMO, with the 43" E450 it's essential to turn the Sharpness down to 0.
It only adds artifacts including the staircase effect of diagonal lines.
Plus a tech who works for Samsung posted last year said the same thing
adding the 'cell light' is a holdover from the LCD line and should be set to it's max.
He went as far to call the 'cell light' bogus.

that was why I "jested" that they outsourced their web page to some "cheap north american spec writers".... it could be an error. There are plenty of errors out there. I have a samsung tablet (tab2 7) that samsung indicates everywhere (including their support group) that it connects to video devices via hdmi (plus something else)... it can't as it doesn't even output video via the particular output port provided.... probably a class action law suit but that another issue. Anyways, very observant owners of this set would be able to see whether the set a given native resolution..... hopefully, maybe. :-)

Both the sammy and panny are 16:9 ratio wide screen with the same 4:3 resolution. This leads to stairstepping and screen door effect, the latter being the bigger offender.

Here's a webpage from panasonic that stated a 16:9 res in the specs, it's an older tv but you get the idea.

http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/TC-42PX34?t=specs

I don't understand why you think that these "720p" TVs (which are actually 768p) will stretch the image, but they do not. That's why you don't see it in reviews - because it is not happening. Nothing is being automatically stretched.

If you send this TV a 720p, 1080i, or 1080p signal, put the TV's aspect setting to FULL, and display a circle or square you'll see a perfect circle or a perfect square. They will not be stretched - they will appear in their original aspect.

^^^All one has to do is get out from behind the keyboard and go to any store that sells these sets and look for one's self--they have 16/9 screens with no geometric distortion.

I have one of these and I can assure you there is no stretching what so ever with the picture. The picture is actually very good on this tv and better than the Phillips 1080p LCD it replaced in my bedroom.

Says who?...

I have the E450 and it's a fantastic tv for the price.
Nothing is cropped when it's set to 'screen fit' including 4:3.
Screen fit is the default setting and there is no extra picture processing.
I don't like black bars so I use 16:9, wide fit and wide fit 2 when needed.
I like old Hammar and Vincent Price films and with 16:9 or wide fit it's a perfect fit with no cropping.

I give up. You really don't know what you're talking about.

Are you in a foreign country by any chance?

Randy, according this chart 1024x768 is 4:3.

The bottom line is that something the OP read is incorrect, and the PNE450 is definitely a widescreen 16X9 TV.

ok. So what is the affect of rectangular pixels on pq?

Edit:

Nevermind. I don't honestly care.