HDTV aspect ratio question

[womblingfree]

Hmm, not specifically a console question but please bear with me as Rllmuk is down, and also I bought the TV for the PS3 so a console is at the root of the problem!!!

Anyway...

I have a Sharp Aquos 32DG9E, very nice it is too.

It has 2 x HDMI inputs, one for the PS3 and one for my upscaling DVD player (Sony NS76H).

Now sometimes when I play a widescreen DVD, in either the PS3 or the DVD player, the picture displays at 4:3 with the letterboxing taking up only the middle of the screen with black borders on either side and the top and bottom of the screen.

Rubbish!

Thankfully my TV usually adjusts automatically to such DVD's to make them fully widescreen. If not then there is a manual option to change the aspect ratio to either:

Normal
Zoom 14:9
Panorama
Full
Cinema 16:9
Cinema 14:9

Coupled witht the ability to move the picture either horizontally or vertically I can usually fit a letterboxed film, including subtitles, by jiggling around a little.

Now here's the problem:

While this works for the PS3 and Freeview, the Sony DVD player seems to neutralise my ability to do this. The options to change the aspect ratio simply do not display onto whichever extension the Sony DVD player is plugged into.

The player has its own options but these merely allow 4:3 images to display as 'normal' or 'full' (which just stretches the picture )

Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

EDIT: It seems to be mainly kung-fu films that are affected for some reason??? Either 4:3 letterbox that takes up only a strip in the very centre of the screen, or gloriously annoying stretchy-view.

EDIT:

I can't change the TV aspect ratio when an mp4 is playing through the PS3 either.

[fallenangle]

This is pure guesswork so sorry if it wastes your time.

Perhaps somewhere in your TV's menus there's a separate auto/manual formating on/off option. My Sony CRT certainly has one but saying that I don't have any problem manually changing format whether it's on or off.

However, it may be set to auto and probably prioritises Normal 4:3 by default. So if it is detecting the Sony DVD player as a 4:3 source it'll only display within that 4:3 frame. Why connecting this particular device stops you changing format afterwards I've no idea. If the auto formating option is turned off and/or you manually select the screen format you want before turning on any device surely it should display properly.

I may be talking technical bull**** but if a TV's format is set manual I don't see how an external device, presumably connected by RGB SCART can change that setting. If the TV format is set manually to full or widescreen the input device should display within that chosen format ........ probably.

The problem may, of course, be much more complex and to do with the upscaling - I'd go to AVforums.com and ask there first about any issue like this.

[womblingfree]

I've totally figured this out and it's such a simple explanation!

My DVD player upscales to 1080i and the TV wont let you muck about with the ratio and positioning when the image is at HD, thats' 720 or 1080 (not sure why this would be but it's probably a simple explanation).

If I just set the DVD player to output at 576p (the lowest it goes) then I can fiddle around to my hearts content.

PS3 doesn't upscale DVD's so I can change the ratio, but the MP4's were being shown at 1080i so I couldn't

Problem solved

Seems that higher resolutions can also be a burden for older DVD's that weren't designed for them, hence kung-fu films being particularly affected.

[Sane]

I think it's like this:

The DVD's you have a problem with are letterboxed widescreen rather than anamorphic. Basically this means the black bars are in fact part of the image displayed on your screen, the tv sees no difference between them and the actual picture. So when you upscale to 1080 you end up with a 1920x1080 image that includes the black bars but completely fills up your screen, hence you can't shift it around.