Hello. Im a little dissapointed right now.. I just bought a new tv, a widescreen 50 inch hdtv.. and am playing a dvd on it right now.. but i always thought since i have a widescreen tv, im not going to get any bars, or small bars at most because some movies are shot wider than others.. but i have bars just as big as on my 4:3 tv.. am i doing something wrong?? Also kind of my first hdtv, but normal tv looks like crap.. but i think that is normal..i have the sony kdf-a10 i think thats the model.. the 3lcd one..
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Widescreen Tv
- Thread starter jer446
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Your DVD player will have an option for selecting the type of TV it's connected to. It'll still be set to 4:3, and you need to change it to 16:9 
jer446 said:
No!
You are probably watching a 'letterbox' fiim which is 2:35 ratio.
Widescreen TV's are 16:9 or 1:85 ratio
Films that fill up the TV picture will all be 1:85. Letterboxed films (2:35) will still have the borders on top and bottom.
Regarding the black bars on DVD playback, you have to know what the ratios are.jer446 said:
Your new TV is 16:9 or 1.78:1. Many DVDs are set at 1.85:1, which is slightly wider than your TV, so you'll see a small amount of letterboxing. There are even some DVDs that are at 2.35:1, in which case, the letterboxing will be more pronounced. But in all cases, the amount of letterboxing will be less than with a traditional 4:3 TV.
The other thing you'll have to look at is if your DVD player is set up properly. Most DVD players have a set-up screen that you can access with the remote. Make sure you have the screen ratio set at 16:9 or widescreen.
As for the crappy SDTV channels, that's just an unfortunate byproduct of having more resolution. With an HDTV, you're more able to see just how crappy the SD signal was in the first place. A regular TV can mask the crappy signal.
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yes i set up the tv for a 16:9 tv.. right now hd channels look very good.. just my dvd's that ive made copies of dont..Single layer.. could this be the reason?? Just these movies.. (i-robot and unleashhed) have normal sized blackbars..
Also another question is why abc in hd, fox in hd and cbs in hd arent in 16:9, they are in 4:3
Also another question is why abc in hd, fox in hd and cbs in hd arent in 16:9, they are in 4:3
You pretty much answered your own questions. The DVD copies that you have aren't going to look good on an HDTV because DVDs aren't as good as HDTV. That's not to say that you can't get good results with DVDs on an HDTV, but your chances are diminished if you're using a compressed copy of a commercial DVD.jer446 said:
As for 4:3 material on the networks. There's two possibilities.
1. You're not watching the network's HD feed. If you're on cable, the HD feed is usually in the higher channels (for instance, in my area, HD channels are in the 200's). If you're on antenna, try finding the HD feed.
2. The program you're watching isn't HD. Not all network programming is broadcast in HD. If you're watching an HD channel, but the program is in SD, you'll get a 4:3 picture (probably pillarboxed).