I recently bought my first HDTV (Hitachi Ultra Vision 51" Projection).
I have it hooked up through component cables and I get HD through my cable box and it looks great on HD channels, but I was wondering about the blocked off sections on non HD channels. There's dark grey boxes on the left and right sides shrinking the picture down to a box. I understand this is normal? Can someone explain why?
Also does that hurt the tv at all? Or, is there any way to stretch the non HD channels to the rest of the screen?
Also, any comments on that particular brand/model?
Non HD pictures, known as standard def, are essentially 4:3 in ratio and you're watching them on a 16:9 picture. Since you can't fit a square into a rectangle, you are left with the bars on the sides. There is a way to stretch the picture with your TV remote by finding the screen mode or wide mode button on your remote. Normally it's best to set it to full and not zoom so you don't crop any of the picture. Some projection TV's are prone to screen burn so it's best to avoid these bars as much as possible. I've got no complaints with Hitachi HDTVs.
The only "modes" I can find are "News" "sports" "movies"...I cant finad anything that stretches the picture, I've gone though every feakin setting there is