Aspect Ratio problem, DVD on widescreen TV

[Proch]

I have a Sony NS-715P DVD player hooked up to a Philips Widescreen 34" HDTV.
The picture is great when the source comes from my HD cable box, but
everything is stretched when playing a DVD.

The hookup is through one of the component video inputs.

The TV doesn't provide any means of switching video modes when using one of
the two component video inputs. Which makes sense, because it's my
understanding that when a source is hooked up through component input, the
TV really doesn't have any say as to how the picture is formatted.

The DVD player has a setting for "TV Type" in which the choices are 16:9,
4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Pan and Scan. I have it normally set to 16:9, but in
trying to figure this out i've noticed that switching between these three
options makes no difference at all. Is my DVD player broken?

Does anyone else have a similar problem?

I have used a tape measure to physically measure the picture on the screen.
a 2.35:1 DVD shows up as a 29" by 10" picture (2.9:1)

4:3 DVDs play fullscreen. 1.85:1 aspect ratio DVDs play like 2.35:1 DVDs

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

[slovak100]

i have a similar problem with my Philips dvd player, but only when playing DivX files on it. Its depressing but at least it plays DivX!, i mean it aint that bad but i have the exact same problem.

[Vejita-sama]

Normally you have to set out DVD player to 16:9 AND you TV to 16:9 (there should be an option for 16:9 vs. 4:3 input on most models). That should fix the problem.

In theory (most new) DVDs are ananomporic. They store the video at 720x480 with a flag (as 4:3 or 16:9). You then set the disired output on/in your DVD players setup. Any letterboxing that's necessary should then be done on the fly. eg. DVD film w/ 16:9 DAR played on std 4:3 tv. If you set the DVD player for 4:3 output than THE DVD PLAYER will letterbox the video on the fly, if you set for 16:9 output it does nothing.

Many (but no all) TVs can be switched from 16:9 widescreen mode, to 4:3 std mode. In std mode the TV will letterbox 4:3 video (blackbars on the side).

Widescreen TVs have a DAR of 1.77:1 slightly less than 1.85:1 so there's still a little letterboxing (normally to small to see). For 2.35:1 movies there will be some noticable letterboxing but less than if played on a std 4:3 TV.

Not sure if any of this helps at all. But double check the DVD player and the TV and let us now. MAKE SURE you have an anamorphic DVD to test everything out thou (again most are).

[Proch]

For some reason, my TV won't let me change format setting (4:3, 16:9, auto, etc) when i'm using either of the two AV inputs that are connected through component input. Does a HDTV have any say in the format of the video when the video source is connected via component video input?

It's possible that my DVD player is broken - I can switch between 4:3 and 16:9 in the player settings and it seems to have no effect.