How squished is it? If the DVD player is outputting an 852x480 signal (480i widescreen or 480p widescreen) then you may have to tell the TV that the signal is a "Full" or "Widescreen" signal because most TVs don't differentiate between a 480i/480p 4:3 signal and a 16:9 signal. You should have a format button or something like that to change. My Sony TV has one that cycles through "Normal", "Full", "Zoom", and "Wide Zoom" for 480i/480p material. Most TVs that I have seen automatically go into 16:9 mode for 720p/1080i/1080p material.

If its 16:9 but you have black bars on the top and bottom, thats normal on a 2.35:1 movie. You shouldn't have black bars on the side or anything though.

 

What's up guys? I've never posted up on this thread but thought I'd share my new setup. Just picked up this TV:

http://www.tweeter.com/product/index.jsp?p...rentPage=search

I also bought the matching stand, and I have it connected to my Denon 3910 Upconversion, Panamax 5100, X360, PS2, and Pioneer 1014 receiver. The picture on HDTV, Xbox 360, and the Denon upconversion look AMAZING, although it took some adjustment to make it look the way it should. I would like to upgrade the receiver and get some new speakers at some point, but I'm pretty happy with my new setup. Now I just need to sell my 42" Plasma lol!

 

Yeah, I have 4 settings to choose from, and none of them are acceptable...
Dot by Dot (exact pixel output from DVD player), Stretch, Zoom, Side Stretch.

The output is over HDMI to the TV (Sharp 52" LCD). The only way I was able to get the proper height without cropping out the left and right edges was to tell the DVD player to output a 4x3 signal (instead of 16x9) and telling the TV to display it Dot by Dot... However, then I ended up with a very small picture in the center of the screen, surrounded by black bars on all sides

I could then zoom THAT image up at the proper height-to-width perspective, but it looked like total ass (SD quality, roughly), since I was pretty much attempting to double the image size.



This is the only DVD I've run into this problem with. Guess it's NOT so great that it's a Criterion Collection DVD...

 

From what I'm reading on the Armageddon Criterion Disc it is a non-anamorphic transfer. So that means the black bars are part of the actual movie, or in other words, the movie is actually 4:3 on the DVD with a letterboxed picture.

Because of that, what you did is probably the only thing possible, output it in 4:3 and zoom in to make it 16:9 ...

 

Animes2k I had noticed the exact same thing with my Armageddon DVD, only mine is not a criterion one. The image is really squished, I have never seen it like that before. I have tried everything to get it to work correctly. I have a samsung HLP5063 and a oppo dvd player that upconverts. I have tried the same DVD on my other HDTV that isnt widescreen and it looks just fine. Anyone have some insight on why this would be?

Someone just posted with what looks like is the problem.

 

ah, yes I see, that makes sense.
I guess when it was released, nobody really had widescreen TVs... And the picture isn't squished vertically, it's stretched horizontally. Pff! Oh well.

Skip was the one telling me how great the transfer on this movie was... (actually at the top of this page!) Maybe he has a newer, anamorphic release.

 

what kind of issues did your box have? I tried mine out a little bit this weekend (with a SD tv) and it seemed to take FOREVER to even change channels... Press... wait... change... on-screen menu catches up a second later... done... Horrible.

 

I remember waaaay back when my wife hated the widescreen display on non-16:9 tv's(black bars on top-n-bottom). Years ago, however, she became intolerant of 4:3 viewing. Every movie we buy, rent, or even borrow must be a widescreen version or she will not watch the presentation. Our copy of Armageddon is simply a digitally masterd widescreen copy.

 

Yes, lag is a problem for us DTV guys, too. You will be learn to deal with it. It's a penance to pay for HDTV programming, even though it lags looking for non-HD material, too. Chris, I told you, you will end up sacrificing much for that next hit off the HD crackpipe. It's begun.

 

Are you trying to watch HD channels on an SD tv? It will pause between channels then since it doesn't know how to process the signal.
My other box's issue was that the primary tuner would display a skewed picture. Switch to the second tuner and everything was good.