[dbb]

Which widescreen monitors do the best stretch for 4:3 broadcasts. I saw some Panasonic models that seemed pretty good and previously thought that the only option was vertical letterboxing. I am thinking of models in the 40-47" range.


Thanks,


Dan

 

[online2much]

I'm very pleased with my Toshiba 56H80 (they make a 40" model too). Switching back and forth between normal and theatre wide 1, I am hard pressed to see distotion, other then a very slight bit of cropping top and bottom. My biggest concern with it when I bought it was for sports, but now having watched baseball and a football game on ESPN Classic, it's no longer a concern...I think it looks great.

 

[dbb]

Does the running tally at the bottom of ESPN burn into the screen?


Dan

 

[Ken H]

It's a personal choice. Most members here will use the black/gray bars on the side to preserve original aspect ratio, rather that distort a 4:3 image.


All 16:9 sets (and most, if not all HDTV stb's) have some kind of stretch/zoom mode for 4:3 material. But if the broadcaster is upconverting 4:3 material to HDTV, only the Dish 6000 will give you control over that. The DTC-100 has a workaround, too, but it's less elegant (more buttons to push), other stb's may also do this.


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