Wide Full

What will a full screen dvd look like on a wide screen tv?

You know how you get the black lines above and below when playing a wide screen dvd on a full screen tv? Well, since I still own a full screen tv I typically try to buy full screen dvds but recently it occurred to me that eventually I will purchase a wide screen tv and so now I would like to know how my full screen dvds will appear on a wide screen tv.

Any DVD with movies formatted for 4:3 aspect ratio (standard TV)will have the black bars on either side of the display, known as letterbox. Usually, your DVD player or widescreen display should have a stretch or zoom feature that will fill the entire widesceen with a picture, but you may end up noticing a visible distortion in the proportions of images. If your new TV will be a plasma, make sure you always fill the screen with an image because having those black bars on either side will cause definite burn in, leaving an after-image on the screen permanently and damaging the display. I would recommend getting widescreen versions of your favorite DVD movies, or always stretching the picture to completely fill the display.

Tina Dickow – Open Wide (Full studio Vision)