PVR721 & 921 4:3 stretch modes??

[EvanS]

16:9 TV's are becoming ever more popular, and some of them (specifically the new and wonderful Hitachis) have a horrible time stretching 4:3 material across the 16:9 screen so that it is somewhat viewable AND not chopping much off top and bottom.
I read posts from D* viewers that use the new Sony 200 HS STB to do the stretching and it works well.

I wonder, will the PVR 921 have this feature for displaying SD programming on an HD screen?
Also, could the 721 be modified in s/w to do this...or is this a function that requires harware?

[Mark Lamutt]

I suspect that the 921 stretching will be done like the 6000 does it now - only on HD signals (or SD signals upconverted by the box to HD). SD outputs will still probably rely on the television to do the stretching. This is a guess on my part.

[sampatterson]

I wish they would do the stretching like the Toshiba (and some other HDTVs do). They leave more of the center of the picture unstretched and stretch the side more. It looks better and is easier to get used to.

[greylar]

I have a Toshiba widescreen and I prefer to use the mode where the top and bottom are chopped off. I have scrolled the picture so that I don't lose much of the top but lose more of the bottom. I find that there is very little worth watching on the bottom of the screen and with the exception of the occasional subtitle. Besides I notice that more and more shows are in letterbox so it makes even less of a difference.

Greylar