Before I start, I would like to say that I am very new to DVD Players, so if I am saying anything that seems stupid or "You should know that!" - I am sorry in advance.

There's the thing:

I've have a 28" Samsung widescreen TV. I have just seen a really good DVD player that I would like to get.

But then I thought, what would happen if I played a widescreen movie in a DVD player to my widescreen TV? Would the image being sent to the TV be in a widescreen format or in a 4:3 image (i.e. getting the black bars on top & bottom?

Thanks.

Mark

It depends.....

if you set up the DVD player for use with a 16/9 widescreen tv, then this will happen:

if you play a movie that was filmed in 16:9 widescreen then it will fit the screen just right..

MANY films are however, made in other widescreen ratios. (2.35 : 1 rather than 16 : 9) for example this means that the film is even wider than a widesceen TV is, so you'd still get slight black bars top and bottom, but if viewed on a 4:3 tv then you'd get BIG black lines top and bottom...

Some DVDs are in 4:3 so your TV could display the image either in a 4:3 box with black lines left and right of the image, or you could stretch or zoom out the image but make it look stretched or lose top and bottom of image.

It's very confusing becuase if you look on a DVD box it might say " 16:9 letterbox' (this is on the film 'Contact' DVD) and this means its a letterboxed image with black lines top and bottom but it's still in 16:9 format for widescreen... confused.. join the club

Is the feature of setting the DVD player to be in 16:9 or 4:3, found in all DVD players?

If not, is there a common standard name for this feature? This is so that I can enquire on this matter with the shop.

Cheers.

I don't think a DVD player has been made that did not have this feature (someone will prove me wrong now )

Before actually buying one though I would recommend letting this forum know what you are thinking of getting as there are good and bad players out there in all price ranges.

Better to spend a while asking the right questions than end up with a dog of a player.

Get a sony, they're quality DVD players!! (any questions about sonys, i'll gladly answer)

The DVD player a mate of mine is getting is a Samsung make, with model name of DVD-511. The player is also a multi-region play, just what I'm just looking for! (The shop said that I should set the player to region 9, which supports all of the other regions).

My mate is getting this DVD player for me in Guernsay on his holiday, and it will cost £160 (tax-free!!)

For more information just click here, and type DVD-511 into the search box. Do make sure that the search option is set to model code and not description. Then when the search result comes up, just click on the model code for the information page.

Well, the Samsung (Thomson also made by Samsung) generally work well and are reasnably well featured. All DVD players will work fine with 4:3 or 16:9 TVs so no problems there.

Be aware that some DVD titles may not play back on a region free player. But most should do. The Samsung is easily hacked by entering a simple few commands from the remote.

Sony, Panasonics and other big brands are less easy (costs money!) to convert to multi region.

I have the Sony 336 and I'm impressed . One point I don't like is that it won't play home burnt CD-r audio discs. The Thomsons do, so I assume the Samsungs also do.

Try those princo cdr's they work fine on sony players.