New fangled TVs and distorted images

Been some discussion here, off and on, in reference to digital TVs, HD screens, tuner differences, etc. I just posted some of this on an older thread but figured I'd put it here as new post also.

Some might complain about big screens that cannot interpret the image properly and make it look like a fun-house mirror. I've noticed quite a few new TVs that cannot properly process an older 4.3 type image and make it look "normal." I've got an LG here that is two years old and no matter what aspect setting is picked - it cannot display a 4.3 image without distorting it. To the converse, my 4 year old RCA and brand-new Emerson do it fine. Also my very older LCD TV that is one of the first digital LCD TVs sold in the US - processes all images just fine.

Also found the same with several Sony TVs and DVD players. In fact, I've got a brand new Sony DVD player with HDMI that cannot play older movies without distortion. And yes it as a set-up menu depending on what sort of image aspects are being viewed. None will correct the distortion. Works great with newer movies on DVDs. Work terrible on older DVDs of old movies, TV shows, etc. After many calls to Sony tech -they told me their HDMI cannot properly display older movies and there is NO setting to correct it.

You'd think with all this high tech -somebody could come up with a TV, DVD player, or Blue Ray play that could not only properly display all TV and movie images - but also sense the format and do the aspect-change for you.

On another subject - when it comes to Plasma or LCD screens of 720 or 1080 resolution, or DVD movies versus Blue Ray - I wonder how many people can really see the difference? I've checked many side-by-side and with some I see NO difference. Usually a subtle difference with an HD image between 720 and 1080. But with DVD versus Blue Ray? I can usually perceive no difference yet when I burn a DVD it's often 5-6 gigabytes, whereas a Blue Ray is 25-50 gigabytes.

We just got a new one. Haven't tried the DVD player with it. We had to upgrade to a HD Direct TV receiver to get a decent picture that looked right on the screen. It didn't matter what setting we put the TV on,fill,overfill,standard,whatever,it just didn't look right. It still seems to depend on the channel to some extent. The old black and white shows will look square and fit the screen,but when it comes to distortion,RFD seems to be one of the worst for making people look too wide. I'm not going to go to settings and fiddle with things every time I change channels,I'll just live with it.

If you look around the settings, some have an 'unscaled' option.
(used on older VGA computer to tv hookups)
might help

The better new TV's also have a 'gaming' mode or similiar
in there somewhere.
A proper 'gaming' mode will turn off ALL the TV's image processing.
Displays image as-is

During online gaming, you don't want any processing at all,
as this will put a milliseconds delay into what you see from what is actually happening.
Very bad thing....LOL

I have a variety of TV brands in my house and they all are capable of different settings. You just have to find the one obscure button on your remote that will trigger it. On a universal remote, you may have to program a button on the remote to enable it but mine were capable out of the box. The most common settings on my TV are Normal, Stretch, Partial Zoom, Zoom, Grey Bars and Black Bars.

Sometimes it depends on the program as to what your picture looks like. My TV will fill the whole screen with a modern movie but will leave gray bars or black bars on the sides when watching old black and white shows such as Cheyenne or early Gunsmoke episodes.

Your TV is evidently stuck on a setting to fill the whole screen regardless the size of the programs original format, causing the image to stretch sideways, making everybody look short and fat.

Like I said - I'm well aware of the "aspect" settings. I'll say again. Some TVs distort certain formats - especially old programs and movies REGARDLESS of the settings.

My 32" Sceptre has an "aspect" button with choices of "normal", "wide", or "cinema."

My 40" Secptre has an "aspect" button with choices of "normal", "wide", cinema" and "zoom."

My 19" Sansui has a "screen size" button with choices of only "full" or "cinema."

My new 50" Emerson has a "screen size" button with choices of "normal", "4.3", "movie expand" and "wide."

My old 40" Brillain Syntax (one of the oldest LED-Digital TVs) has an "aspect" button with choices of "normal", "4.3", "zoom" cinema 1" and "cinema 2" and "panaramic."

Yes - what you are describing is exactly what I'm talking about. Some TVs do not have the ability to show all screen formats. Same with many DVD players. Especially is using an HDMI hookup to the TV.

Movies at the theater used to be made in 4.3 format. When analog TVs came out - they copied that and also used 4.3 (almost square). Now a lot of TVs and just about all movies are in new formats like 16.9, 2.35:1, 1.85:1, 2.29:1, etc.

Ironically my oldest digital 40" LCD TV has the ability to watch anything without distortion. So does my new Emerson 50". We have many others that cannot. Also have a new Sony HDMI DVD player that cannot. We cannot watch old movies and TV shows with it (on DVD) without severe distortion.

I've been in many households with new TVs and the images are often distorted.

Have 3 Samsungs (46",42"?,32"), each with several picture aspect ratio settings. Have not noticed the distortion problem. Oldest is ~4 years, others ~ 2.5.

That is all settable.

No it is not. Not on all TVs and not with all programming.