Widescreen LCD question

[cwa107]

Question for you home theater buffs out there...

I just picked up a Sharp Aquos 37" LCD TV from Costco.

It looked great in the store with the HDTV feed and now that I have my Digital Cable hooked up via HDMI, it looks OK with that too. I have an over the air HDTV antenna and it looks great with that. My problem is with widescreen non-HDTV digital cable and widescreen DVDs.

This is my first widescreen TV/HDTV, so bare with me as I've done plenty of research, but I'm not 100% comfortable with all the jargon.

The TV's native resolution is 720P, it's also capable of 1080i. I have a progressive scan JVC DVD player. When I view widescreen TV or a widescreen DVD, there's no output mode that seems to be the "correct" setting. The Digital Cable is connected via HDMI and the DVD player is connected via RGB Component cables (the only option for my DVD player). When I change the output mode, these are my options:

- Stretch
- Side Stretch
- Zoom
- Side Bars

Which should I be choosing? Zoom seems to cut parts of the screen. Side Stretch looks OK, but why would it need to be stretched? Stretch leaves the bars at top and bottom. And of course, Side bars has bars at the sides, top and bottom.

Am I missing something?

[humanoid]

There should also be a setting on your cable remote that also has those options you listed. To access it on my remote, it's the # button. Select "side bars" as your default and when you view non HD signals, it'll have the sidebars without the bars on the top and bottom.

[rocky]

I'm currently running a DVD player that doesn't have HDMI output with my Plasma via RCA plugs.

Experimenting with the DVD player, I discovered it has 16:9 output as well as the standard 4:3.

Switching to 16:9 made a big difference in picture size.

I'll get to progressive scan/upconverting dvd player one day......after I get the surround sound fixed up.

[cwa107]

I think I figured it out. I don't have HDTV Digital Cable, that's an extra monthly fee. So, when a show comes on in widescreen format, it's because it's also broadcast in HD, but my digital cable doesn't actually display it in HD. Had I been viewing the show in true HD, it would fit the screen.

Also, my DVD player - which I was told was Progressive Scan when I bought it a couple of years ago is not Progressive Scan.

Thanks for your replies though.

[Scoobs]

If and when you get an upconverting DVD player remember that most of them will not display 4:3 DVD material properly on a widescreen tv when using an HDMI connection ( using component cables won't solve the problem as they won't upconvert using component cables). While this doesn't matter much for movies it can be annoying if you are watching 4:3 tv series on DVD as the dvd player will stretch the picture. You need an upconverting DVD player that will "pillarbox" the picture , or as some people call it, sidebars. Oppo dvd players will pillarbox, so will the Samsung DVD-HD860, a relatively inexpensive player.