PVR 501 and 16x9 Setting???

If you have a 16x9 tv (like a HD or a computer video in) you could watch this in the 16:9 ratio.

Normal Tv's are 4:3 ratio. Unfortunately, you wouldn't see anything more by enabling this feature on a "normal" tv. In fact, things might look kinda wierd and you might loose some picture area.

Unlike DVD's which put black bars on top and bottom of the picture to simulate a 16:9 mode or a movie screen look. Giving you more picture then the "pan and scan" version or 4:3 version of the DVD, the 16:9 setting on the 501 will not "letterbox" the picture for 4:3 tv's.

So, basically, if you have a 16:9 aspect ratio tv, enabling this will make your picture look right, otherwise it would look distorted a bit.

It tells the receiver not to show anamorphic content as letterbox, but to pass it through unchanged. It's the EXACT same as on a DVD player. It will make any content flagged as anamorphic letterboxed if it's set on 4:3 and it will make it anamorphic (vertically streched to fill the 4:3 box) for the stretch mode on a widescreen TV if set to 16:9

---HOWEVER!---

Neither DISH nor DirecTV has broadcast EVEN ONE program flagged as anamorphic... So the setting doesn't mean a thing in real life.

Neither DISH nor DirecTV has broadcast EVEN ONE program flagged as anamorphic... So the setting doesn't mean a thing in real life.

Click to expand...

This is not entirely true. Several times BRAVO has broadcast "Cirque De Soliel" in anamorphic on Dish.

It wasn't flagged as such, and therefore wasn't downconverted to letterbox for 4:3 TV sets

Mark is correct on this one. The 16 x 9 feature had no effect on the video for the shows.

The Dishplayer also has this option, yet again nothing marked 16 x 9 so it has been useless.

This may be true for the E* receivers, but the Sony WEGA's that do vertical squeeze handled it properly.