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EDTV makes people short.

813 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by R Harkness, Oct 14, 2004

PanamaMike

Discussion Starter · Oct 13, 2004

I've seen this posted and referenced here and there, but I didn't come to appreciate it until I was watching Charlies Angels "Full Throttle" at Fry's on an ED Panasonic 42. The scene, where the Angels confront the big bad Demi Moore. I was a bit taken aback as to how the Angels where squished!

I hadn't really noticed it til then, is this an issue with how the picture output is set? Can this be adjusted or do you just have to live with the effect if you have an EDTV?

Mike

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1 - 13 of 13 Posts

Paul Bigelow

· #2 · Oct 13, 2004

How was the Panasonic picture scaled: 16:9, Normal, Stretch-o-vision?

Was the picture from a DVD? If so, how is that player configured: 16:9 or 4:3? If DVD, was the "Full Screen" DVD or "Wide Screen" DVD version of "Full Throttle" utilized? (It does exist in both formats)

Could the picture be from a DVD-Recorder that didn't record wide screen?

If configured not to do so, ED plasmas should not have a stretch look.

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Plasma George

· #3 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by PanamaMike
Can this be adjusted or do you just have to live with the effect if you have an EDTV?

Been an ED owner (2) for 3 years, never saw anything like your describing.

Widescreen movies match my Widescreen TV perfect (sometimes bars on top from different OARs)...I'm in the mood for a little "Jedi" now....sweet.

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afiggatt

· #4 · Oct 13, 2004

I have been surprised by the number of big B&M stores where the demo 2.35:1 movie is squished down on the 16:9 TVs. And this includes cases where a dedicated DVD player is hooked up to one 16:9 TV. It is rather easy to tell as the height of the displayed picture is close to 1/2 of the screen height rather than the ~ 75% that a 2.35:1 anamorphic should be on a 16:9 TV (0.75 = 1.78/2.35). You would think the people who work there would at least know enough to set the DVD player to 16:9 TV output, but I guess that is too much to expect. It is very likely that the DVD player was the cause, rather than the TV, but perhaps someone messed up the TV settings too.

That is was an ED TV rather than HD TV had nothing to with the squished look.

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Jim Boden

· #5 · Oct 13, 2004

It's pretty pathetic how many stores don't take the trouble to set aspect ratios properly. For me, it's a real turn off and says a lot about the people who work there and the business itself. What it says is "We're not concerned about demonstrating our products properly and we know you don't care. Just look at the beautiful picture and buy. Oh, and don't ask us too many technical questions please, because we probably don't know the answer".

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R Harkness

· #6 · Oct 13, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by PanamaMike
I've seen this posted and referenced here and there, but I didn't come to appreciate it until I was watching Charlies Angels "Full Throttle" at Fry's on an ED Panasonic 42. The scene, where the Angels confront the big bad Demi Moore. I was a bit taken aback as to how the Angels where squished!

I hadn't really noticed it til then, is this an issue with how the picture output is set? Can this be adjusted or do you just have to live with the effect if you have an EDTV?

Mike

Whatever you saw had nothing to do with any inherent quality of an ED plasma, or any display for that matter. It would have been a mismatched picture setting in either the plasma, DVD player or both.

For instance, Charlie's Angels "Full Throttle" widescreen DVD is stated as having a 2:40:1 aspect ratio. Correctly set that would appear on the ED plasma as a widescreen image with black bars top and bottom. However, there is typically a setting on a plasma like "FULL" wherein all the visible picture information is made to fill the screen, with no black bars. I'm not talking about merely zooming in on the image, but actually squeezing the entire 2:40:1 widescreen movie image into the plasmas screen. The result is the image fills the screen, but you get geometric distortion. Fat people.

Often enough, since store people are allergic to images that don't fill screens, often enough they'll click to just such a picture setting.

Or, really typical for store set-ups, they'll play the 4:3 ("Full screen") version of the film, meant for non-widescreen displays. Then they'll just press one of the plasma's stretch modes to make it fill the screen. Again, geometric distortion and fat people.

Another is that they'll be playing a widescreen DVD, on a widescreen display, but the DVD player will be set to output to a 4:3 display. Every DVD player has this setting and so many of them are set incorrectly in the stores. The result is that the DVD player outputs a widescreen movie image, but it has black bars top and bottom, and it appears as a tiny image in the middle of a widesreen TV, with bars on either side as well. (The DVD player thinks the TV is only 4:3 shaped). Once again, instead of simply setting the DVD player correctly, the salesmen click one of the zoom/stretch modes on the display to fill the screen. Resulting in...you guessed it, geometric distortion.

It's practically rare to see a movie properly displayed, properly proportioned

in the stores.

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PanamaMike

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 13, 2004

Good to know.

Yes, the picture filled the entire screen, thus it must have been one of the incorrect aspect ratio settings.

Just wanted to make sure there wasn't any sort of geometry issues with ED sets. The decisions keep getting harder when pricing and quality keep getting in the way

Mike

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Mort

· #8 · Oct 13, 2004

Also, might be possible that it was set that way on purpose. Trying to explain 500 times a day why the black bars are there would be a PITA. Those that didn't ask might be turned away from a 16:9 TV entirely wondering what was the point of having a widescreen TV if you still had bars.

Mort

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Joxer

· #9 · Oct 14, 2004

I've found at Fry's most of the time the DVD player is still set at the default 4:3 display output even connected to 16:9 plasma displays. I try to change the setting if I notice it when I am checking one out there, or at least set the plasma for zoom mode to reduce the distortion.

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caltvdude

· #10 · Oct 14, 2004

Don't blame the salespeople to much, especially in bigger stores. It's the corporate and management who's to blame. They don't make there employees want to care. They say just smile and be friendly.

The problem is today there more worried about getting the prices lower by highering hourly kids than training a proffesional staff. In one respect it's sad that these people don't care to make things look good, but in another respect the large number of members in this forum that walk into a store to look at and play with the TV only with the intention to buy it on the internet just goes to show that these employees aren't the only ones that don't care.

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snatch

· #11 · Oct 14, 2004

Mostly right caltvdude. My store has everything set up appropriately. Forum members do come in and play with the sets and from time to time mention this site. It's funny how most of the high tech HDTV buyers we get that are also forum readers are virtually the only ones who really really try to haggle prices.

We're not car dealerships people, we'll give a good deal, but you've got to be willing to give us a reasonable deal as well.

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SushiSeeker

· #12 · Oct 14, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by R Harkness
.... I'm not talking about merely zooming in on the image, but actually squeezing the entire 2:40:1 widescreen movie image into the plasmas screen. The result is the image fills the screen, but you get geometric distortion. Fat people.....

Its seems to me that this would make "skinny people". I would think

the other scenerios you outlined with a 4:3 image stretched to 16:9

is more likely. Just details, you're basically dead on correct with these

scenarios.

JP

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R Harkness

· #13 · Oct 14, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by SushiSeeker
Its seems to me that this would make "skinny people". I would think

the other scenerios you outlined with a 4:3 image stretched to 16:9

is more likely. Just details, you're basically dead on correct with these

scenarios.

JP

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