thx i saved those links to favorites and have alot of reading to do :)

I prefer a streched image that cuts the top and bottom off...after switching from CRT to LCD >the look of squashed images still does not look normal to the eye, so I keep the image stretched, which has a less fatiguing effect from abnormal optics.

I own a Panasonic 42PX75 and i find the strech mode acceptable for most 4:3 content( the way it keeps the center very uniform then streches the farthe you get out).

But i do admit that there are certian shows that just cannot be watched streched. mostly when the people are not centered in the screen it definitly makes them look fat.

But most of the stuff i watch is in HD so i dont worry about it too much.

I watch stretch on my Panny 42PZ77 plasma and mostly OAR on the Sammy HL67A750A LED with some stretch depending on the show. With a set that size who cares about side bars. 4:3 looks huge already. Amidst the plasma vs LCD pissing contest the LED DLPs are a nice low cost alternative on the larger sets. No bulbs, no colour wheels, no rainbows, no grey blacks, no black crush, no burn in, no problem. :)

Almost never. I only do that when the material shown in 4:3 frame is either letterboxed (use zoom) or improperly flagged anamorphic (use stretch)...

Just polling how people watch their 4:3 programs on their HDTV :)

Basically what mode do you use to view them like strech, side bars, etc...

I use Smart Stretch mode. It stretches the edges of the picture more than the centre so that the picture doesn't actually look stretched. The only time you can actually see the stretch is if there is a ticker of text or numbers running across the screen, like on CNN.

No, I think it makes an already poor SD picture look worse.

I use Smart Stretch mode. It stretches the edges of the picture more than the centre so that the picture doesn't actually look stretched. The only time you can actually see the stretch is if there is a ticker of text or numbers running across the screen, like on CNN.
Or when someone turns their face sideways and their nose grows in size like Pinocchio's!

I hate when customers stretch an already inferior 4:3 SD picture, which only makes it look more inferior. One of my pet peeves.

Or when someone turns their face sideways and their nose grows in size like Pinocchio's!It works much better with a side view of a woman's torso... :p

I never thought of that!

I use the 9200 stretch mode for SD. It works well enough for the few times I actually watch SD. A habit I got from my CRT RPTV and plasma. Now with the LED DLP I don't need to anymore but I've gotten so used to watching SD in stretch mode now, I only watch 4:3 in OAR on DVD and bluray.

Does this make my butt look fat?

Only at the edges - I've gotten use to a stretched picture on my panny

I'm now used to watching 4:3 SD programs in 4:3... but I used to hate those black side bars, it looks kind of distracting, and it looks a bit "small" than the stretched one, so I used to watch stretched.

I stretch 4:3 only because I don't like the 'ghost' of the side bars on screen when watching true 16:9 content.

Going LCD is a no brainier.

No worries of burn in. LCD's have less power consumption. The matte finish on the LCD screen has no reflections, plasmas have glass screen.

I no longer watch CP24 on my 26" LCD because of excessive retention in the top right corner where the weather forecast is. I used to watch it every morning for a couple of hours. Not anymore.

It took almost a full week for the ghost of the borders and temperature numbers to go away.

Same thing happened prior to that when I left the "Twister" Blu-ray menu on screen for about 20 minutes. That was gone after about a full day or so.

What's the point? Like others have said, it takes a bad picture and makes it worse. My TV doesn't have burn-in issues so I never stretch SD on my TV.

If you are watching a channel that will burn in logo's, turning down the picture or contrast will eliminate or lessen burn-in/image persistance.

I stretch 4:3 broadcasts that are letterboxed (ie: you have black bars to the sides and above and below) - movies on History channel or Space are good examples. I stretch within the STB as it doesn't crop any of the picture when it does a stretch like this, and it re-alligns the subtitle display so it doesn't get cut off either.

For 4:3 that's displayed as 4:3, I don't stretch. And for and 16:9 or 2.35:1 content I don't stretch.

for me it totaly depends on the content. ifs its a standard sitcom that usualy only have 1 or 2 persons on the screen centered i will use the Just Scan mode on my panasonic. as with only 1 focal point at the center it looks normal and i like that it fills the screen.

If its a reality show or a show with many people on screen at the same time i just leave it as 4:3 as i dont like looking at unnaturaly fat people.

and i dont consider useing the zoom feature for 16:9 inside of 4:3 to be streching anything. you arent loosing any content just filling the screen.