Video Asylum

Posted by David Spear (i) on July 29, 2000 at 23:32:44:

In Reply to: TV ?'s, 16:9 vs. 4:3, etc... posted by Eric H on July 28, 2000 at 09:14:47:

I had an old 25" Victor TV and recently bought a DVD player. The tiny size of letter-boxed movies was simply too irritating for me, so I picked up a 36" widescreen Toshiba 36ZP50. (BTW, this might be a Japan-only model, since I live in Japan and got it at a local electronics shop. where is was billed as a "latest model".) In any case, I had the same doubts as you about problems watching standard (4:3) video. I shouldn't have worried! You can watch standard video in "normal" mode with black bars on the sides or simply engage "zoom" mode to fill the entire screen, albiet with some cut-off on the top and bottom. Anamorphic playback (where the standard picture is stretched out to fill the wide screen) is just plain dumb-looking to me, since everybody looks obese. Well, actually, it's kind of fun for watching Sumo wrestling, since it makes these huge guys look wider than they are tall! If you're planning to build a collection of DVD movies, there is no question -- go for a 16:9 widescreen TV. Good viewing!