New HR-20, New to HD picture questions

[mrshermanoaks]

OK, just got my HD TV and HR-20 this week, and I'm trying to figure out the picture sizes. What I'd like to see is the whole screen used all the time - stretched when necessary. What seems to be the case is that when I'm watching SD channels, I can get the picture stretched. But when I'm watching a digital channel, it is locked into whatever the format and size.

Can someone explain how this works or point me to a primer? Thanks :)

[houskamp]

Hd signals won't stretch
'regular channels' will... I use crop for 'letterbox' programs because it fills the screen
on non 'letterbox' you can use stretch or pillarbox ( i use pillarbox so everyone doesn't look fat)

[batguano]

OK, just got my HD TV and HR-20 this week, and I'm trying to figure out the picture sizes. What I'd like to see is the whole screen used all the time - stretched when necessary. What seems to be the case is that when I'm watching SD channels, I can get the picture stretched. But when I'm watching a digital channel, it is locked into whatever the format and size.

Can someone explain how this works or point me to a primer? Thanks :)

why on earth would you want to see the picture stretched? I can't understand why people want their picture to be deliberately distorted.

[paulman182]

It bothers some people more to see only part of the screen being used than it does to see a distorted, full-screen image.

Panasonic has a "Just" setting that only distorts the edges and is not too bad. My wife uses it all the time, and I have gotten used to it.

It worries me that a 4:3 HD image can't be stretched. Probably means she would watch the SD in that case. Really.

[bonscott87]

I don't want to through this thread off course but the reason I chose the HDTV set I have was because of it's excellent stretch mode. It leaves most of the picture untouched and only stretches the very edges. After 4 years I don't even notice it (actually after 6 weeks of using it I didn't notice it anymore). In this way people don't look "fat" or distorted where most of the action takes place. I've tried watching it piller boxed and it bugs me more then stretched. :)

[PoitNarf]

Every once in a while I'd encounter one of my HD OTA locals broadcasting a letterboxes 4:3 image with my H20. Just like the HR20, the H20 won't let you change formatting options when it is receiving a HD signal. I ended up using the format options on my tv to get it to fill the entire screen. I have both the format buttons for my HR20 and tv programmed into my Harmony 880 just for these rare occasions.

[jboutiet]

When you send the TV a plain 4:3 image, there's no picture information being received for the far left and right sides. The TV can choose to show you a black bar, or stretch the image to fill the screen.

When you're receiving an HD signal, everything is broadcast in wide/letterbox mode. If a show is in regular 4:3, they're actually sending the black bars on the sides along with the picture. This is why your picture appears to be locked. The TV is trying to show you the whole image. It doesn't know that the stuff on the sides are just black bars.

[chdwil]

OK, just got my HD TV and HR-20 this week, and I'm trying to figure out the picture sizes. What I'd like to see is the whole screen used all the time - stretched when necessary. What seems to be the case is that when I'm watching SD channels, I can get the picture stretched. But when I'm watching a digital channel, it is locked into whatever the format and size.

Can someone explain how this works or point me to a primer? Thanks :)

Did you try turning off the native option?

[PoitNarf]

Did you try turning off the native option?

Native on or off, it won't let you change the formatting options on an HD channel.