My Time Warner/SA 8300HDC DVR was staying quite full of stuff I had recorded, some of which I wanted to save. I bought a used DMR-EZ27 to try and learn how to record those things I wanted to keep. With only one or two failures, I quickly got the basic hang of it and was able to burn copies of several things.

I have HD service and a 40" Samsung TV. The EZ27 is set for 16:9. When I record something that is broadcast in 4:3 format (say an older movie shown on TCM) the DVD recorder automatically stretches it so that the full widescreen is filled upon playback - perfect. If the original movie is broadcast in letterbox mode (and the full screen isn't filled without adjusting the playback settings on my cable box), the recorder automatically stretches the width, but the height says the same. If I record an HD show that is broadcast to fill my full widescreen, the recorder keeps the full width but shrinks the height.

Do I need to change some settings on the recorder to force it to record the mode in which the original is in so that I can adjust it manually? Or is the recorder always going to default to what it's doing now?

I did some web (and forum) searching for answers. I saw several things related to what the recorder would do with DVD RAM media vs regular + and - media, but I don't have enough experience under my belt to decipher all the nuances I found. I decided to post here in the newbies forum and let you have the option of moving this to the DVD recorder forum if that's a better fit.

Thanks in advance for any pointers. If there's other info I need to provide or something I need to explain more clearly, please let me know how to give you better info.

JEFF