Tickers on HDTV

 

ronnie
I almost had my mind made up on a Mits 65611, then decided to wait till 65313 came out. In the meantime, I went to a local store and saw a Toshiba.

My question is this:

The salesman recommended that no matter what store I go to, make them change the staion to one that has the tickers running on the bottom of the screen. (Like when there is a storm warning, or the stock quotes). When he showed me this, the only TV that looked "straight" was the Toshiba. All the others were "crooked looking". This I beleive was done as though you would be watching regular cable. Can anubody advise here?

I am fixing to pull the trigger on a new set. I am leaning towards 55- 65 inch. I'm still trying to figure the best bang for the buck. Budget is 2700.00.
 

Derek
I have never heard that one. I have a 12 year old Panasonic direct-view and a 3 year old 52" Proscan and I have never seen crooked tickers. What did it look like?
 

ronnie
The letters that come across the screen, that start from the right side of the tv, look like they are going into the TV instaed of straight across. Then, after about 1 second, the letters straighten up and go straight. Then, as they near the end of the left side of the tv, they look like they are coming out of the tv. Can you tell what I'm saying? I saw it myself with the other tv's. It may have been a HDTV on basic cable. I dont know.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks
 

Anonymous
Ronnie - this sounds like a panoramic view distortion. With panoramic view you get only the sides of a normal 4:3 picture "stretched" in order to fit a 16:9 screen. This actually improves the viewing of a 4:3 picture on a widescreen TV -- no "fat" people all over the place ;) meaning that the picture is not just stretched all over. Very nice for most types of shows because most of the action is in the "center" but disturbing with some because the the left and right edge are quite distorted. Hope this helps. Ralph
 

Derek
Ralph is right. Some TVs have settings called "Zoom" or "Fill" where the outer portions of the screen are stretched. Good televisions will have at least three settings. One of them is linear. I wouldn't judge a TV without searching for this setting in the setup menu.
 

ronnie
I am curious why only the Toshiba didnt do that. He said all the other TV's in the place looked "crooked". Maybe it was a sales pitch.

Thnks guys.

BTW. Derek, what 3 settings were you talking about? Linear and what else?

Thanks

Ronnie
 

Derek
They go by different names. Sometimes they are called; zoom, wide, theater, fill, smart fill, auto, panaramic, stretch,etc. It all depends upon the manufacturer. They are designed to fill the screen without distorting the picture too much. For example. A 4:3 source viewed on a 16:9 widescreen TV would either have black boxes on the sides or fill the screen but chop off the top of peoples heads. The source could also be stretched but then people look short and fat. To get around this, some manufacturers will have a setting that stretches ONLY the far left and right sides and chop off a small amount of the top and bottom of the screen (though not enough to chop peoples heads off). When you watch a TV set this way, the screen will be full of picture but things scrolling across the screen, like text, appears to accelerate or scretch onto the screen, slow down to normal and then "peal" off suddenly on the other side.

You will have to go into the setup menu and turn this stuff off and watch a widescreen source to compare apples to apples. Your salesman is wrong this is a "feature" used to stop people from whining about black boxes on the sides of the screen.

Hope that helps.
 

ronnie
yep, that helps alot. I kinda figured it was a sales pitch. I have seen what you are talking about. The way the screen gets stretched makes it look funny. I would rather put up with the bars myself. They dont bother me that bad.

What TV would you pick if you were going to watch standrd cable? I have that now, and I am checking into Digital Cable. I beleive I want DVI. My Receiver is HK 525.

Thanks
 

Derek
If you are stuck with regular cable get a cheap $700 Apex. NTSC has only about 350 lines of resolution. Any TV can do that. HDTV has 1920 lines. For that, I would pick up one of the big silver Sonys or a Sansung DLP.
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