Brodel Posted October 21, 2005 Share Posted October 21, 2005 ok, this is probably gonna sound pretty stupid but what is the advantage of widescreen when things arent filmed in widescreen? I've never had a widescreen tv in my house but whenever I have been to friends houses and theyve had widescreen, unless you are watching a film all the images look stretched sideways and just wrong. Is that common or is there a function on the tv that you can change to stop it? whenever I ask my friends they just say they've never really noticed because they're used to it now. The reason I ask is because I need a new TV and have seen som really good deals on widescreen tv's but dont really see what all the fuss is about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZappBrannigan Posted October 21, 2005 Share Posted October 21, 2005 I know exactly what you mean. I'm pretty sure most widescreens have options that let you choose if you want a fullscreen picture stretched to fill the widescreen, or you've got the choice of having black bars down each side. Alot of people seem to put up with the rather deformed looking stretched option because having black bars down each side is rather off puting, looks like wasted space for example. Basicaly the choice is yours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 well there an option to put the image back to 4:3 mode and fill the rest of the screen with black bars but that's not good for the TV. Well for a CRT. The black bars unevenly wear out the phosphurs on the glass so it's best to let the image fill the TV. If you get a LCD then there's no burning so no problem. And lots of stuff are going widescreen now.. and almost everything will be prolly by the end of 2006 (hopeful guess ;) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brodel Posted October 21, 2005 Author Share Posted October 21, 2005 well there an option to put the image back to 4:3 mode and fill the rest of the screen with black bars but that's not good for the TV. Well for a CRT. The black bars unevenly wear out the phosphurs on the glass so it's best to let the image fill the TV. If you get a LCD then there's no burning so no problem. And lots of stuff are going widescreen now.. and almost everything will be prolly by the end of 2006 (hopeful guess ;) ) 586703741[/snapback] ah ok, thanks. To me that seems like a major design fault though? I don't really see what all the fuss is about, most of the time when I watch tv things aren't in widescreen unless it's a film but you're right, I have noticed mroe and more tv programs going widescreen so maybe it is best to plan ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 well if you got a widescreen odds are it'll be a HDTV. So therefore you wouldn't watch regular NBC anymore.. you'd watch NBCHD and the rest of the HD channels (oh just saw you are in the UK... dunno what you guys have there) HD images are widescreen by default so your favorite shows are in HD (16.9) and come with 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. So no not just films. Shows like "The Office" - The UK edition since we got a replica here in the states would prolly be in full HD glory. Some channels are in HD all the time. Everything, including commercials are full HD! We have a channel in the US here called "INHD" and they show movies, sports and other events in HD all the time! there are a few others too but you get the idea. Once you go HD you wont even wanna watch shows if they aren't in HD anymore. Trust me! I used to watch alot of lil shows but since the stations haven't begun HD yet it's like i don't even wanna watch them anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brodel Posted October 21, 2005 Author Share Posted October 21, 2005 HDTV hasn't quite kicked off here in full yet. For now I think an HDTV is out of my budget right now, I just came across a fairly good deal on a 32inch widescreen regular tv and was wondering if it was worth picking up. The current TV in my room is practically an antique lol. When you said that swiching to 4:3 mode can slowly ruin the TV, would it be really noticeable and are you talking about in 6months time itd be really noticeable, or more like 4 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 what model TV is this.. just for the fact it's widecreen makes it atleast EDTV (Enhanced Definitition = 480P) I'd think. So i'm curious. And with uneven wear after about 6months to a year you'll notice colors on the end of the TV being faded vs colors in the middle. But since it's a regular TV you don't have too much to worry about i guess. Burn in on older type CRT TVs are better now but it's still not a good idea to watch with sidebars, they'll burn in after a while. My TV manual said 15% per week of my watching time with sidebars would start to show effect. I have a big rear projection tho so maybe that's why. Watching 100hrs of TV a week.. 15hrs or more with the sidebars would start the damage which is can't be undone. Also watch out for stations with their lil logo... so if you TV is set to say the history channel, after a while it'll burn into the TV and it'll always be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted October 21, 2005 Share Posted October 21, 2005 OK, most things are filmed in WS and then cropped to a 4:3 TV (or have the black bars). This includes TV shows & films. So obviously a WS tv suits these. But some things are still filmed in 4:3 (thought I can't name ANY). Now obviously putting these on a WS tv is gonna cause issues: Stretch: looks distorted Scale + Crop: Loses picture Bars at sides: looks retarded So you are often presented the 3 above, and a more intelligent stretching that doesn't look warped. It's more of a panorama that a straight stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 well there an option to put the image back to 4:3 mode and fill the rest of the screen with black bars but that's not good for the TV. Well for a CRT. The black bars unevenly wear out the phosphurs on the glass so it's best to let the image fill the TV. If you get a LCD then there's no burning so no problem. And lots of stuff are going widescreen now.. and almost everything will be prolly by the end of 2006 (hopeful guess ;) ) 586703741[/snapback] That's why many TV's now use white bars. I believe that helps lessen the damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 well not white bars... those are even worse. To display WHITE uses all the phosphurs so it burns even faster. Gray bars are what's best. My TV and cable box both have the option for gray bars which would help even tho i don't use em. And most newer TVs only stretch the edges or it's in one of their "strech modes" Some have like 2 or 3 different modes to see which you like best. The best one is where the center is stretched only like a lil and the edge (the part you hardly watch) is stretched the most to fill the screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 well not white bars... those are even worse. To display WHITE uses all the phosphurs so it burns even faster. Gray bars are what's best. My TV and cable box both have the option for gray bars which would help even tho i don't use em.And most newer TVs only stretch the edges or it's in one of their "strech modes" Some have like 2 or 3 different modes to see which you like best. The best one is where the center is stretched only like a lil and the edge (the part you hardly watch) is stretched the most to fill the screen. 586704034[/snapback] Well, some are white and some are a grey shade (varying shades). Zoom is usually the best if you want to fill the screen, but I still think its a bad idea to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoDaddy Posted October 21, 2005 Share Posted October 21, 2005 Stretching is a really aggravating thing to me - especially when it's on a computer monitor and things like dialog boxes get to be 1 1/2 times their normal size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangbang023 Veteran Posted October 21, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2005 Stretching is a really aggravating thing to me - especially when it's on a computer monitor and things like dialog boxes get to be 1 1/2 times their normal size. 586704701[/snapback] To relate it to my customers, I call it the silly putty effect. I don't know how many kids younger than me remember it, but you used to take silly putty, press it over someone's picture in a newspaper and the image would appear on the putty. From there you could stretch it really wide. Sometimes, you have to get very nontechnical to relay the idea to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brodel Posted October 23, 2005 Author Share Posted October 23, 2005 well flicking through most channels I have realised they practically are all in widescreen, and I can change the screen settings on my digi box pretty easily too. An even better deal came up so I snapped it up, probably a miss price and won't come through but worth a shot anyway. thanks for the info :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudos Veteran Posted October 23, 2005 Veteran Share Posted October 23, 2005 If you have Sky digital, most high profile shows are now in widescreen. /k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deactivated Account Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Rather then starting another topic I will post in here. I swear Sony gave me a USED TV I got this TV 1 Month ago and use it maybe 3-5 hrs a day and look at my Lamp Hrs... This seem right to anyone? because it dont seem right to me I should have Less Hrs showing up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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