NEW Mitsubishi 16x9 55411 question!

[pwygant]

Yesterday I bought after some long consideration a HDTV upgradeable Mtsubishi 55" (55411). I really like the quality and all the different features it offfers. Picture is very good but I have a few questions that worries me an really is making me reconsider my options.

I bought a big screen TV due to the "Movie experience". Most DVD's today are Widescreen so I thought that this will be the greatest fit. What I didn't realize is that regular Widescreen still displays black bars on the top and bottom and Anamorphic fills the entire screen. The regular widescreen I have to "expand" the screen to make it fill the screen thus loosing some quality on the side but not much.

Here are my concerns and frustrations. ..

It is stated very solid in the manuals that you should try to stretch the screen most of the time to fill the entire screen so burn in won't happen.
"Please limit viewing of letterbox or black bars to only 15% per week to avoid damage to your TV"

- What the hell is this? I don't really understand. Is this just a suggestion or are they really serious that I should still expand every widescreen movie that is not anamorphic? Quality doesn't go down much but I think it looks better still with the top bars. On top of this all my old SVCD movies are displayed wrong as well. They can't even me expanded out but of course they are 480x480 so I understand why there is a problem there. I guess if I watch one of those movies per week I will be ok.

Please let me know about your experiences with this and also to you that have this version of the MItsubushi if this was a great choice or if I should return it to just buy a 38" tube widescreen! (I think 38" is the largest they do in a tube)

[TenaciousJP]

What they mean by "expand the screen" mainly applies to watching normal television broadcasts. When you watch a 4:3 broadcast in the proper aspect, you should have either black or gray bars on the sides of the picture. Those TV-generated black/gray bars can cause burn in if used for long periods of time. The common TV watcher, who only uses the TV for a few hours a day at maximum, will most likely never burn in the screen. It is places like sports bars, or stores, that have their TVs running all day that end up with burn-in the most.

What I do, is this. Whenever I watch a 4:3 full screen broadcast, I stretch the image to fill the screen. Things may look a bit distorted, but I am protected against burn-in, and the images fills the screen, without the bars on the sides.

As for letterbox discs. You can use your TV's Zoom feature, to remove (or, in the case of 2.35:1 discs) or almost remove all of the bars, causing the picture to look anamorphic (but with a little less resolution).

You can also just stretch the picture sideways. You will have the black bars, and the picture will be distorted, however.

I do both methods. I have a Progressive Scan player, so I watch anamorphic DVDs anamorphic, in progressive scan. If I have a plain letterboxed disc that is 1.85:1, I watch it stretched. If I have a 2.35:1 letterbox disc, I turn off my player's progressive scan (I need to, or use I can't change the viewing options on my TV. Also, progressive scan disables any closed captions [not DVD subtitles] that the TV outputs), and zoom in the picture. A few exceptions are made with the 2.35:1 for me, however. Since I watch all my movies with captions/subs, if the subs are not viewable when I zoom in, I stretch the film.

Ultimately, it is up to you what to do. If you don't use your TV nonstop, all day, then you will be likely to avoid burn-in. The bars on the sides are the main burn-in killer, remember.

-J

[pwygant]

Main concern with my post was how to "not damage" my TV!


Thanks for your quick reply! After doing a little research on this I guess I have come to the conclusion that most people say that I won't really damage my screen by watching letterbox or regular widescreen on the top and bottom, just if I watch 4:3 with those ugly grey bars vertically...

Alos I have come to the conclusion that only 1:85 + Anamorphic will display over the entire TV. I only "own" 2 movies like this and they are Jurrasic Park and Ice age. The rest of them are 1:85 non-anamotrhic and 2:35 etc.

I have a progressive scan DVD player as well so I think I like watching it better with the bars than strecthing or expanding the regular standard widescreen.

P.S I will never watch TV 4:3. My tv uses the expanded which makes tv look OK...

Any other knowledge would be appreciated....