Hi, I recently purchased a Sharp LCD 26" HDTV (LC26DA5U) along with a Toshiba Upconverting DVD Player (SD-4980). I'm having some trouble with the combination when upconverting. I set the TV size to 16:9 in the DVD setup, and tried to play a standard format movie in upconvert mode 720p. This will only play in "Stretch" mode on the TV, and is distorted. In 480p mode it plays correctly. The problem I have is that the TV allows you to change modes in 480p to standard w/side bars, zoom, or stretch. In 720p and 1080i, the only option is stretch, so 4:3 format is wrong, and I can't use upconversion to view 4:3. I'm using HDMI by the way.
What factors are at play here? Does every TV only do stretch or full screen in HD modes? Is there a limitation on the DVD player to prevent it from sending the correct ratio in HD mode? Is all HD programming in 16:9 then?
Only DVD's in explicit 16:9 format seem to viewable in 720p mode, otherwise I can't get a true picture.
I seem to have found the answer to this. DVD's are encoded in Standard or Widescreen and there is the common problem of viewing letterboxed movies displayed in the Standard format on Widescreen Tv's. You end up with black all around, and zooming is the only option in this case, and this is only possible in 480p mode, so no Standard mode upconversion is possible. And HD programming is always in 16:9.
Sorry for the minimally pre-researched question. Mike