TV: Samsung LN37A550P3F DVD PLAYER: Sony DVP-NC85H
I have my TV set to 16:9 widescreen and my DVD player is set to 16:9 widescreen and I have my dvd player connected to the TV using a HDMI cable. The problem I'm having is this: everytime I watch a full screen dvd the picture is either squached (compressed) or it's streched out. If I put my TV to 4:3, I get a thick black border around the entire video image.
My dvd player has a setting called 4:3 output and the choices are Full or Normal. If I set it to full the picture streches even if I have the TV on 16:9. If I set the dvd player to normal I get thick black border around the entire video image.
I know someone who has the exact same dvd and a 62in Phillips widescreen. When he plays this dvd (btw, this dvd only comes in full screen format) the picture looks perfect and it's not streched or compressed. When I watch this dvd it's either compressed or streched.
Samsung wrote back the following: Does this occur on every dvd you play or just this one? Is the tv on 4:3 when you change the dvd player output to 4:3? What version HDMI cable are you using (ver 1.3 or lower)?
My reply: This happens on every DVD that is not 16:9 and the black border is on all 4 sides everytime. My TV is in 16:9 widescreen and my dvd player is in 16:9 widescreen. I way always under the impression that full screen dvd's will fill out the entire screen.
The HDMI cable I am using is ver 1.3. Will it help if I take out the HDMI cable and use component cables?
In direct opposition to your impression, a "full screen" DVD is chopped from it's original format to fit a 4:3 screen.
To continue with the bad news (sorry) it is very likely that the Phillips TV that looks so much better is just that, it does a better job of stretching the picture than your Samsung.
The last bit of bad news is that the cables should not make any improvements to this situation but it may be worth a try, you never know until you do (and please, I would love to know if it does).
Like I said earlier in this post, I have a setting on my DVD player that say's 4:3 output and the options are full or normal. If I keep it on full the picture is stretched but if I keep it on normal the picture is in 4:3 output but my DVD player and my TV is still in 16:9 output. My TV will frame the picture but it will automatically put 16:9 wide-screen DVD's in the proper aspect.