CATV Aspect Ratio Question

[banta24]

Hi there,

I got a Sony KDFE-50A10 last week and like it a lot. I am confused about something though and seeing as this is my first 16:9 based set, I thought I'd ask...

When I had my old 4:3 clunker, some programs, like ER for example, seemed to display in letterbox format. I thought great! when I get a 16:9 TV those programs will be in widescreen and look like they were meant to. Well, I'm confused. I do get the programs showing up in a widescreen looking aspect, but no matter witch setting I choose on my TV (Full, Normal, Wide Zoom or Zoom) none of them accurately fill the screen with the image. The closest I can get is Zoom, but small portions of the top and bottom of the image are cut off. I eventually went back to "Normal", since it's the only setting that doesn't cut off or otherwise distort the image, but I now have "bars" not only top and bottom of the image, but on the sides as well. Any idea if I'm doing something wrong or is it the nature of the broadcast?

I read another post saying that HDTV's are in a 1.78 ratio, not the 1.85 that most movies are in...

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Banta

 

[Audioholics]

This may help:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/specsformats/widescreenletterboxpanscan.php

 

[shamus]

do you have hd cable or just regular?????????????? if its hd then the setting would probably be set to normal or natural and that would give you a correct widescreen image...if its just standard cable then youll have to do your best like you said by stretching it or zooming it

 

[banta24]

I just have plain old analog cable service. I am saving up for the HD terminal as Shaw doesn't offer a rental option or support cablecard, which really burns me since I have the slot in my new set. I guess I'll just use normal mode for now and put up with the bars all the way around the image.

Thanks for your help and the article link. Very informative

Banta