On 4/26/2010 4:49 AM, Invisible wrote:

> I especially love how I have a widescreen TV, but you have to manually
> flip between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect. Even though it's connected by a
> digital link, so you'd think it could *detect* which kind of signal it's
> receiving...

Heck, the device producing the signal even does this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreen_signaling

There is a slight issue, of course with HD signals, since they're only 
intended for the 16:9 aspect ratio, if a program was originally intended 
for the 4:3 ratio, it will be "pillar-boxed", but the signal is still 
16:9, so you must manually change the TV's widescreen mode if you want 
to fill the screen.

> That being the case, it's not entirely easy to tell whether you're
> watching a widescreen broadcast, or a normal one with the top cut off.
> (Unless of course you configure the TV to show black bars at the side -
> but it's my mum's TV, and she always complains when I configure it that
> way.)

I don't care for the stretching, though when viewing 4:3 full-screen on 
my TV it's not as severe as some, the only reason I do stretch it, 
though is because my TV is an old-school CRT projector and prone to 
burn-in. If it weren't for that, I'd display 4:3 in its native format. 
Perhaps your mother has the same concerns?

-- 
~Mike

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