Just got the Grand Wega kf50we620. I like it so far but I'm wondering why most DVDs can only be viewed in wide zoom. I'd like to view the movies in original format without it being zoomed\stretched. This only seems to work with normal mode which appears smaller on the screen. The manual sucks! Gonna play around with the settings some more. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Read the Digital Home FAQs on "Widescreen Stretch Modes" and "Black Bars". DVDs must be "stretched/zoomed" to be viewed "properly" (without being "windowboxed").

Thanks for FAQ's section. I''ll read through them before I post anymore questions. Regarding the stretch/wide mode question, my concern lies with this TV specifically. I'm famiiliar with the blackbar/aspect ratio info but this TV in normal mode has black bars vertically and horizontally. When watching in wide zoom the original image is altered/scaled. I guess I'm just surprised that the Grand Wega has to zoom to utilize the whole screen area. HDTV looks far better than DVD no matter what the aspect ratio is.

1. I guess I'm just surprised that the Grand Wega has to zoom to utilize the whole screen area.

2. HDTV looks far better than DVD no matter what the aspect ratio is.1. All widescreen HDTVs do this. That's the main reason that the stretch modes exist (there are other reasons like burn in on CRT-based RPTVs, etc).

(Some HDTVs do this "automatically" on 480P inputs, however, on those HDTVs, if you have a non-anamorphic DVD, the stretch is not "correct" and you either have to change the DVD player to output 480i, or you have to turn the automatic feature off, or override it, if that's even possible)

2. Wow, you mean that 720P and 1080i look better than 480i ;) (DVDs are encoded as 480i). I guess you've found one of the main advantages of owning an HDTV. ;)

Moon,
The Sony 16x9 TVs have four Screen Modes. Their names and descriptions by Sony are a bit confusing.
o Full Mode: This is the 16x9 native mode of the TV. It should be use for wide screen material like HDTV and anamorphic DVDs. When watching an HDTV channel, the TV is forced into its native mode (Full Mode). You can't change the mode in this case. In some cases, you might see black bars even in HDTV. These black bars are part of the picture sent by the TV station. When watching an anamorphic DVD, some DVD players (like Sony) will send a signal to the TV to switch it to Full mode. When you buy a DVD, check the aspect ratio. Some say "Full Screen" that means 4x3 not 16x9. Notice the confusion here. Look for "Wide Screen". Not all "Wide Screen" DVDs are in 16x9 (1.78) ratio. Some are wider (2.35) and will leave black bars at top and bottom.
o Normal Mode: This mode is for watching regular 4x3 material including 4x3 DVDs (aka the confusing so called "Full Screen" DVDs). Regular TV channels and 4x3 DVDs may use letter boxed 4x3 material. In these cases, you want to use the Zoom Mode.
o Zoom Mode: This mode is for watching letter boxed 4x3 material.
o Wide Zoom Mode: This is a compromise mode. You can use it to stretch 4x3 material to fill the entire screen but the picture will be distorted. This mode is handy to avoid burn-in on a CRT based TV. Your TV is LCD based so burn-in should not be a concern.

Thanks for the breakdown on the different modes jlet. After reading your tips I tried watching Gladiator (2:35) in Full Mode and it looks stretched to me. It shouldn't though, right? In Full my black bars are 5 inches thick. So much for the big screen!
57, DVDs are encoded in 480i!!! That kinda sucks. Everything should be HD!

I tried watching Gladiator (2:35) in Full Mode and it looks stretched to me. It shouldn't though, right? Is your DVD player set for 16:9? Sounds like you could be set for 4:3. I calculated that the bars should be about 2.5" (each) on a 50" TV...

I'm assuming that Gladiator is an anamorphic movie (enhanced for widescreen). I'm assuming you read those FAQs I mentioned earlier.

Moon,
I concur with 57's assessment. Set your DVD player for a widescreen 16x9 TV. An anamorphic movie on a DVD disk is squished horizontally to fit into the NTSC 4x3 format. If your DVD player thinks your TV is a regular 4x3, it will squish vertically this anamorphic movie to make up. This explains why your black bars at top and bottom are bigger than expected. If you tell your DVD player that your have a widescreen (16x9) TV, then the player won't squish. The TV Full Screen mode will inherently stretch horizontally this anamorphic 4x3 movie back to its proper aspect ratio. However, you will still see black bars at top and bottom because the movie aspect ratio is 2.35 and you TV is 1.78.

Jlet, a point of clarification. There is no "squishing" although it does look like it. (Remember there are only "bits" on the DVD, not actual pictures).

Anyway, the way it works is, the anamorphic DVD contains "more information" than a non-anamorphic one. If you set your DVD player to 16:9, all of the information is utilized. If you set your DVD player to 4:3, some of the information (vertical resolution - every 4th line or so) is "discarded" for 4:3 TVs.

This is why you need to use only a horizontal stretch for anamorphic DVDs and need to use the "zoom" for non-anamorphic. The difference is a factor of 1.33.

Got it now. I had my DVD set on 4:3. You were right about the blackbar size 57. Now it's about 2.5". I was thinking of buying a DVD with DVI to improve the picture but now I don't think so.

Thanks for your help guys.

Thank you 57 for explaining how a DVD player set to 4:3 deals with anamorphic material.

I have a Sony kf50we620 set which I love, but I do have one question about the Zoom mode (as opposed to the other stretch modes). When I put a letterboxed program into zoom mode, the closed captions are actually rendered off the bottom of the screen so that they are basically unwatchable. It looks like the TV renders a "virtual picture" and then applies the Zoom mode to it. This makes closed captioning utterly useless in Zoom mode. I have been using Wide Zoom instead to avoid this problem, even at the cost of distortion.

Of course, now that I have my SA8000HD HD PVR from Rogers, it's less of an issue since most of the letterboxed material I was watching is available in HD.

Anyway, has anyone seen this, and if so, do you have a way to prevent this from occuring?

It will depend on the widescreen programme, as well as where they put the CC as to whether you can see it or not. I also sometimes use the non-linear stretch instead of zoom for the WS programmes.

Less vertical zoom, but in some case, when the quality of the original material is not that great, also better picture quality.

If you measure the various WS programmes, you'll actually find quite a bit of variety in the size of the "black bars".

Also, most TVs have a certain amount (typically 4-6%) of "overscan". Most TV programmes take this into account by keeping "important information" within the 90% center of the screen, but DVDs may not.

Overscan can be adjusted on some TVs, not sure how, or if, on the LCDs.

daveharr,
My Sony TV provides slight Vertical Size and Vertical Center adjustments but only for the Zoom and Wide Zoom modes. The features are under Menu//Screen. Your TV might have similar features. What I do is reduce the Vertical Size to minimum and move the Vertical Center up.

I've tried adjusting the vertical positioning, but the only way to get the CC to show up in Zoom mode is to end up displaying some of the black bar, which seems a poor tradeoff.

Fortunately this is not a problem on HD programming. :-) Now if the Movie Network would just bother closed-captioning *any* of their HD programming...