[snuci]

Is there a way to get Just mode for component, VGA or DVI input? With nothing plugged in, I can see Just mode for DVI. When I turn on the PC hooked up to DVI, it's not available. I'd like to use it for 4:3 DVD's.


If Just mode was available for all inputs, the Panny would be the best thing since sliced bread.


Santo

 

[Brucer]

Oops! I stand corrected....


Looks like the 6 series does not have the same limitation of past generations.


Page 19 user manual.

 

[kai_hankinson]

Is this pretty much standard? Can a 16:9 TV typically stretch a 480i signal or worse but not 480p, 720p, or 1080i?

 

[rmcgirr83]

Quote:

Originally posted by kai_hankinson Is this pretty much standard? Can a 16:9 TV typically stretch a 480i signal or worse but not 480p, 720p, or 1080i?

The units will "lock" in normal mode when being fed a HD signal. I use the modes on my STB to change the aspect ratio of the source.


Edited to delete progressive, mea culpa

 

[port3f8]

At first I thought this lack of stretch modes on 480p and up was going to be a pain too, but it seems in my case everything came out seemless and simple in the end:


For satellite TV, the dish network tuners have a great feature in that 'aspect' settings are applied differently to SD and HD material (seperate aspect memory settings):


1) Set your dish box output to 720P

2) set channel to a standard def channel

3) select 'stretch' or 'partial zoom'

4) go to an HD channel - set to 'full'


Now change back and forth between hd and sd channels and you don't have to change the aspect settings at all - I love it!


5) use the panny remote to shrink image and remove all overscan.


For my dvd player it has its own stretch mode, so again I don't need the panny justify modes.

 

[lhasiuk]

I don't know about your Panasonic 6UY, but mine will happily strech 480p material coming over the component or DVI inputs, as well as 480i material over the composite or S-Video connection. I do it all the time. It won't stretch 720p or 1080i material.


I've never tried the PC input, but I'm sure that it will allow stretching when you use it as a secondary component input, with the same 720p/1080i restrictions as the others.


I have the TH-50PHD6UY.

 

[tmaestas95]

Quote:

Originally posted by lhasiuk I don't know about your Panasonic 6UY, but mine will happily strech 480p material coming over the component or DVI inputs, as well as 480i material over the composite or S-Video connection.

Agreed. I can stretch 480p as well. But not 720p/1080i.


-Tim

 

[NYTEK]

Can stretch 480P on 42PWD6UY. Not HD inputs though.

 

[snuci]

I sit here on my HTPC writing this post after some experimentation tonight. Thanks for all the responses. This is for the Panasonic TH-50PHD6UY.


As stretch modes are very important for 4:3 content, I hope some of this information will help those who are potential buyers. Panasonic's Just mode is excellent and I wish it was on all input modes for 4:3 content bu the chart below will show you where it is available and isn't. I won't try to explain the stretch/display modes. Have a look at the manual on-line for a good read on how they look.


Here's what I got to this point. Listed is the input port, what I hooked up and the display modes that were available.


-----------

DVI input with the following hooked up:


Nothing - normal, zoom, full, just

PC * - normal (4:3 movie showed gray bars), zoom, full


* PC was hooked up at 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x768, 1376x774 (native resolution thru PowerStrip) Note: I could not set resolution to 640x480 to try 480P because the Windows drivers did not support it. PC was hooked up the same for VGA input.


------------

VGA with the following hooked up:


Nothing - normal, zoom, full, just

PC * - normal (4:3 movie shoved gray bars), zoom, full

SD or HD** thru Dish 6000 - full (4:3 movies showed black bars)


** Tried both 720P and 1080i with the Echostar 6000 HDTV satellite STB.


----------------

Component with the following hooked up:


Nothing - normal, zoom, full, just

PC * - full (4:3 movies showed black bars)

SD or HD** thru Dish 6000 - full (4:3 movies showed black bars)

480i DVD Player - normal, zoom, full, just

PS2 with component cables - normal, full, zoom, just (480p I guess)


----------------

Composite with the following hooked up:


Nothing - normal, zoom, full, just, auto

SD or HD** thru Dish 6000 - normal, zoom, full, just

480i DVD Player - normal, zoom, full, just

PS2 with composite cables - didn't try.


-----------------


After this experimentation, I realized that I never tried my normal interlaced DVD player (a cheap Hitachi) through component cables but rather, I hooked them up with composite instead. I tried it once on my sister's Samsung DLP RPTV and it didn't look that good so I never even wanted to try. Thanks to your feedback I tried it and was quite shocked at the results.


I can safely say that I may now retire my HTPC because the cheap DVD player does almost as well as the PC with an ATI 9700 Pro Radeon card with all the trimmings. Although he ATI Player that comes with the ATI software allows for 4:3 content stretching, the Hitachi DVD player has the edge because it allows me to use the plasma's Just mode to stretch 4:3 and is a lot better.


The Dish 6000 also has stretch modes built in but both the ATI software and the Dish 6000's stretch modes are similar to the plasma's "full" mode and evenly stretches content across the screen, similar to ESPN's "tragic" stretching of their non-HD content on their HD channel.


Anyway, thanks for the replies and I hope this helps someone else out who may be interested in a 6UY.


Santo