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DVDs Upscaling Strangeness w/ Daytek 37" LCD and LG LDA-831

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I recently purchased a Daytek 37" LCD and an LG LDA-831 upscaling DVD player. In general things look great, but there is a bit of weirdness when upscaling some DVDs. All the movies I've tried look fine, but some TV series DVDs seem to not be upscaling correctly. These are commercial DVDs, not ones I've burned myself.

Some of the ones I've tried (The Office season 3, if it matters) look fine and correct in 16:9, but others (Survivor season 9) appear to still be 4:3 and look stretched when the TV is set to 16:9. As these are both TV DVDs, wouldn't the DVDs both be 4:3? I'm not using any zoom setting, just switching between straight 16:9 and 4:3.

I've tried this using both component and HDMI. When they're connect via component, I noticed upscaling resolution is limited to 480p, which I expected as per the manual. Using HDMI aspect ratio weirdness is still present; some DVDs are stretched in 16:9, others are look fine. On the DVD player settings, 720p and 16:9 are selected.

I've read several other threads and FAQs, but they didn't seem to address quite what I'm seeing. Is there any reason why a DVD for one TV series would upscale to 16:9 fine and another doesn't? What can I do to address this (beyond switching 16:9 to 4:3 depending on the DVD)?


Two quick pseudo-asides to help with debugging:
1) The TV only has one HDMI input and I don't really want to get an HDMI switch and another cable unless I need them. HDMI for the DVD player and component for the Motorola 3416 STB should be fine, yes?

2) When I change the input source on the TV, if it it's an analog source, it pops up the current resolution in the corner briefly. This doesn't seem to happen with HDMI, however. I might be misremembering, but is there an easy way to get the TV to display the resolution of the signal it's currently receiving?
 
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#2 ·
Please read the following post on black bars.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76089

In post 2 it discusses upconverting players and how they may not properly do the aspect for non-anamorphic DVDs.

There are two ways to correct for non-anamorphic DVDs - use a different format - like 480i/p and the TV can stretch them (or not, as appropriate), or there may be a menu item in the DVD player on how you wish to handle 4:3 (not-anamorphic) DVDs. The default is usually stretch, but if you don't want these stretched, select "normal" or whatever.

Then please read the following post, useful for newbies to the forum:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

Quick Answers:

1. Yes.

2. There may also be an "info, recall, display" or similar button on the TV remote that brings up the incoming signal for a few seconds. If not, changing the inputs may do so.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply 57. I had read the linked FAQ, but asked as I thought that DVDs from TV would be consistently anamorphic (or not). Is it common that some TV DVDs will be anamorphic but others aren't?

I'll look into this more given the information provided and see if I can't find some combination of settings that make things optimal. Thanks!
 
#4 ·
There doesn't seem to be much consistency regarding anamorphic (enhanced for widescreen) DVDs. You really have to look at that back and see if it says - anamorphic, enhanced for widescreen or enhanced for 16:9 TVs - these all means the same thing. If it just says widescreen, then it's probably not anamorphic. If it's 4:3, it's likely not anamorphic.

Rules of thumb?

Most newer DVDs are anamorphic.
4:3 DVDs are not
TV series may be, or may not be. If they were shot in WS or HD, then it's more likely that they will be anamorphic, but no guarantees.
Some older movie DVDs are not anamorphic.

IMDb is a good source for such informtion. Go to the movie title and click on DVD details on the left side, for example - see all the different versions for SW.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/dvd
 
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