Zoom 4:3 to Full Width on Widescreen LCD TVs?

[Bondiablo]

I just got a 32" Syntax Olevia LT32HVE widescreen LCD TV (Thanksgiving sale) and I've noticed one really annoying thing that I didn't think much about before buying a widescreen. When viewing a TV broadcast and a movie or series is shown in widescreen the channel itself is still broadcast 4:3 to accommodate the commercials and other programs that aren't widescreen so, there seems to be no way to view the movie or series that is widescreen without having black bars on all 4 sides, unless you want the picture stretched horizontally and then still have black bars on the top and bottom. Are there any LCD TVs that can zoom a 4:3 picture to fit the screen horizontally and just cut off the top and bottom or do they all end up showing bars on all 4 sides in this situation?

[Richard_G]

I don't know about the model you have (I've never even heard of it!), but most widescreen TVs have a display button on the remote. I've got a Sony but used to have a Panasonic and that was similar. Pressing the display button cycles through various modes. The display you want (full width but with the top and bottom cut off) is called Smart mode by Sony and Just (Justified) mode by Panasonic. I can step through 4:3 (with black bars at each side), 14:9 (with much narrower black bars at each side), 16:9 (full screen if the image is in widescreen or stretched if 4:3) or Smart (where a 16:9 image is displayed correctly and a 4:3 image has the top and bottom cut off).

Maybe yours has something similar that you haven't found yet?

[Bondiablo]

If there is, I can't find it. It has 4 modes Full, 4:3, 16:9 and Panoramic and it seems 4:3 gives black bars on all 4 sides and the other 3 modes all keep the black bars at the top and bottom and just stretch the picture horizontally.

http://secure.syntaxgroups.com/products/detail.jsp?pid=LT32HVE

[Krispy Kritter]

At most you should have black bars on two sides, there is no reason in any display mode to have black bars on all four sides. If you do in fact have black bars on all four sides, then it sounds like the TV is bad.

You will get black bars on l/r when viewing 4:3 material and not stretching it to fit the screen, and you will get black bars on top/bottom when viewing most widescreen material.

[Bondiablo]

It would have bars on all four sides if the source is 4:3 letterbox and the view mode is 4:3. The problem is this TV seems to lack an option to zoom such a source to make it better fit the screen. I can't believe anyone would have designed a TV so poorly.

[Megahurts]

bondiablo,

What inputs are using and what is the sorce of video?

[Bondiablo]

The composite, S-video and antenna in. The video source are live broadcasts, recordings of broadcasts and all my old VCDs that are of course 4:3 lettebox. I have no trouble watching DVDs full screen because they're 16:9 so all I have to do is set the view mode to 16:9 but if that's the only thing I can watch full screen it seems kind of pointless to have a widescreen TV. Guess it's going back.