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Old 05-07-2006, 11:47
Mark59
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I've bought a Widescreen LCD TV. However, I can only get a stretched 4:3 picture on all the analogue channels despite trying all the controls on the TV or remote.

Any ideas?

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Old 05-07-2006, 11:53
gonnaenodaethat
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Is everything broadcast in WS that you are trying to watch?
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Old 05-07-2006, 11:56
_pF_
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Originally Posted by Mark59
I've bought a Widescreen LCD TV. However, I can only get a stretched 4:3 picture on all the analogue channels despite trying all the controls on the TV or remote.
I must ask: what did you expect to see under those circumstances?
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Old 05-07-2006, 12:13
Milky Joe
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Originally Posted by Mark59
I've bought a Widescreen LCD TV. However, I can only get a stretched 4:3 picture on all the analogue channels despite trying all the controls on the TV or remote.

Any ideas?

Analogue is not broadcast in widescreen. You want to set your tv to 4:3 for analogue sources...you'll get black bars down the sides.

Widescreen FAQ - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds11742.html
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Old 05-07-2006, 12:42
ejim03
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Does it have a zoom or crop setting?

Otherwise you'll only get it stretched, or with the black bars.
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Old 05-07-2006, 13:14
Mark59
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I thought I had a fault on my TV. I can either have 4:3, 14:9 zoom or Panoramic on the analogue channels.

However, if you don't have Sky or Cable is there any point in buying a widescreen TV ? The retailers never mention this!

Thanks.

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Old 05-07-2006, 13:28
David (2)
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for a start you will have a hard job buying a non-widescreen tv nowadays (especially a "brand" name model).

Proper (16:9) widescreen pictures are only on digital systems, such as,
Freeview
Digital Cable
Digital satellite (inc Sky Digital/SkyHD)
DVD
Newer games machines (eg, PS2) running a widescreen game.

I had a Widescreen tv before I got Sky (and freeview), but I already had a DVD player which provided widescreen pictures (on films that were filmed in Widescreen), and I knew I was going to get Sky soon after anyway. Dont forget, that some of the content on Digital Cable, Digital satellite (inc Sky), Freeview is not in Widescreen due to its age, eg: UKTV Gold. All such digital equipment also require you to enter the type of tv you have in a menu, before the widescreen signals are sent to the tv. Games have a setting per each disc plus the games machine has a setting menu as well.

On analogue tv, most content is 4:3 or 14:9 - if you want these to fill the screen with the least distortion, you will need to use one of the special modes provided (Sony call theirs "Smart mode"). If you dont want any stretching of the old analogue pictures, you must select "4:3" which will give you the original picture format with black bars to the left and right. Aside from that, some analogue content is in a special "letter box" format - films, etc that have deep bars top and bottom on old shape tv's. Most widescreen tv's can "expand" these images so they fill the screen using a special mode (Sony call theirs "Zoom").

Also now, they tell us that more than 50% of the UK has got some form of digital reception, so in theory the same % have access to widescreen broadcast pictures. So 4:3 requirements are now a minority, hence very few 4:3 tv's being made/sold.

Dave
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Old 05-07-2006, 15:23
jenzie
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put it to panoramic, as i had it on my first one
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Old 06-07-2006, 11:39
platelet
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Originally Posted by Mark59

However, if you don't have Sky or Cable is there any point in buying a widescreen TV ? The retailers never mention this!

Thanks.

You can get a freeview box from richer sounds for as little as £15, which will give you a wide screen source.

Scroll to the clearance section of : Richer Sounds
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Old 06-07-2006, 14:10
noddylpd
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Originally Posted by Mark59
I've bought a Widescreen LCD TV. However, I can only get a stretched 4:3 picture on all the analogue channels despite trying all the controls on the TV or remote.

Any ideas?


Lol! Is this for real? You have answered your question already!
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Old 06-07-2006, 16:21
A-Friend
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Originally Posted by noddylpd
Lol! Is this for real? You have answered your question already!
I know where you're coming from, but why be so insulting?

More than 24 hours has passed between Mark59's original post and yours during which time the simple facts have already been pointed out to him. But at least you got a laugh out of it!
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Old 06-07-2006, 16:32
Adam792
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Originally Posted by Exulus
Analogue is not broadcast in widescreen. You want to set your tv to 4:3 for analogue sources...you'll get black bars down the sides.
No, 14:9 zoom would be better, the black bars down the side would dissapear and the ones at the top and bottom would too. (Most analogue TV is 14:9 in a 4:3 frame (except the World Cup at the moment.)
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Old 06-07-2006, 23:59
James2001
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Originally Posted by Mark59
I thought I had a fault on my TV. I can either have 4:3, 14:9 zoom or Panoramic on the analogue channels.

However, if you don't have Sky or Cable is there any point in buying a widescreen TV ? The retailers never mention this!

Thanks.

Even if you have digital, the installers don't have a clue. All SKY installs, and all but one NTL installs I am aware of have been left in 4:3 mode when people have a widescreen TV. People have buy a widescreen TV who already have cable also leave the 4:3 defaults. People buy Freeview boxes from the shops and probabally don't know the aspect ratio settings are there yet alone what they mean. Sadly, this means most likely, the majority of widescreen set owners are watching 4:3 cut-outs stretched. Quite sad, really.
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Old 07-07-2006, 10:58
Chris Simon
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Originally Posted by Mark59
However, if you don't have Sky or Cable is there any point in buying a widescreen TV ? The retailers never mention this!
Remember that analogue, the only system that doesn't broadcast in widescreen, is being switched off starting in 2 years time! Then, most of what you can receive free of charge will be in widescreen. You will have to go to digital - analogue is being switched off. You don't need Sky or cable to get digital TV. DTT (Freeview) works via a rooftop aerial as analogue does now and you don't have to pay a subscription to it to receive all the channels you can get now via analogue ,and much more.
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Old 08-07-2006, 02:22
SmegSnot
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My cousin had a widescreen TV and for 18 months had his Freeview box set to 4:3 centre-cut-out and then stretched that image, it was only when I saw the picture via his web cam and I told him it was set wrong, he changed it, he could see the difference.

I also know many people who have widescreen TVs yet their DVD players are set to 4:3 P&S.

I hate to think of how many people also have equipment set to 4:3 on a WS TV.

Yes, analogue doesn't broadcast widescreen, some people don't realise this, but it's easy enough to think about it, there is no way they could transmit widescreen on analogue without it affecting many many people with non-widescreen sets, that don't offer 16:9 (collapse) mode.
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Old 08-07-2006, 11:04
pauldenton
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Originally Posted by Chris Simon
Remember that analogue, the only system that doesn't broadcast in widescreen, is being switched off starting in 2 years time! Then, most of what you can receive free of charge will be in widescreen. You will have to go to digital - analogue is being switched off. You don't need Sky or cable to get digital TV. DTT (Freeview) works via a rooftop aerial as analogue does now and you don't have to pay a subscription to it to receive all the channels you can get now via analogue ,and much more.
well it could be considerably longer than 2 years (it begins in 2008 in the Border TV region) depending where you are... the vast bulk of the population won't have it happen until 2011 or 2012!
http://www.ukfree.tv/closedownmap.php

wonder what the likelihood of an LCD TV bought today not having developed some bad pixels by 2012...
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