Television Settings - Settle an Arguement

[GlasgowBandit]

Blondes I need your help in settling an arguement, for the past number of months in my house we have had some thundering rows over the settings for the TV, we have a 42" Plasma and as most of you will know you can change the picture size on a modern telly the options include viewing in auto format, panoramic, cinema etc I'm sure you all know what i'm on about.

I watch the auto format believing that I am seeing more of the picture, but everytime I come home its changed to panoramic and it really gets on my nerves, its quite clear to me that this is loosing part of the pic so any folk that no about tv's or anyone who knows the craic full stop feel free to give me your thoughts and opinions on this thread so i can print them off to settle a row and hopefully give my head peace. 

[kinboshi]

On my Philips the settings are widescreen, superwide, 4:3, and some other random ones for subtitles that I never use.

ANYWAY, the widescreen is to be used when you're getting a widescreen 16:9 ratio picture, and the superwide or 4:3 is for your old 4:3 ratio picture.

If you watch a 4:3 broadcast on the widescreen setting, it fills the screen, but everyone is fat.  If you watch it on superwide, it effectively keeps the 4:3 ratio but as the screen is 16:9 ratio you lose some of the picture from the top and bottom (not a problem usually unless it's sport and you need to see the score, time remaining, etc.).  If you need to see that, you can either nudge the screen up or down, or watch it on 4:3 - which gives the picture in the correct ratio - but you have two black bands down each side that aren't used.

I hate watching a 4:3 broadcast on the 16:9 setting.

[AndrewT]

Different manufacturers of telly call their settings different things. I have a Philips and they're called things like Widescreen, 16:9, 4:3 so I think you'd need someone who has the same make as you to give you guidance.

But generally, people are idiots when it comes to these types of settings (it's a personal bugbear of mine - I've been known to correct the picture on other people's TVs which I wasn't even watching, simply because knowing they were watching a cock-eyed picture makes me feel the world is not quite right) so I am sure that you will be right and they will be wrong.

[Nakor]

Bandit start here and move on through the links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreen

I fear you are trying to prove a very subjective point.

[kinboshi]

I'm with Andrew here.  It's not subjective - people watch their telly on the wrong setting.

They don't even notice most of the time, which winds me up even more!  Quite often I'll get home, and Michelle will be watching telly.  I'll walk in, and say "you watching it on fatscreen again?" and she'll laugh and then change it to the correct setting! 

[dik9]

But it's great walking in halfway through a footy a match and not knowing the scores