Hello,

I bought a Samsung 32 Inch LA32R51B TV only last night, and it is very much my first experience with a widescreen/HD TV. I seem to have come across what seems like a silly problem which none the less I have no idea how to solve (after hours of messing with any settings I could think to mess with) and hoping someone here will be able to help me out.

There are 4 "size" settings for the display: Wide, Panorama, Zoom, and 4:3. The 4:3 works fine, but I didn't get a widescreen TV to watch that, right? When trying "Wide" or "Panorama" (what is the difference between the two anyhow?) the picture always appears "stretched" horizontally. The "Zoom" setting fixes this problem, but cuts off parts of the picture so that I need to "shrink" it again vertically, essentially ending up with a horizontally stretched picture again.

At first I thought this was due to the TV broadcasts not being broadcast digitally (I basically just plugged the TV into the antenna; I have no other gadgets installed with it at the moment) and wasn't too concerned, but now I have discovered that the same thing happens when I try to watch any DVD movie. The "Wide" and "Panorama" setting show a horixontally stretched screen. What's even more confusing is with DVDs some movies display with horizontal black lines top and bottom (letterbox?) while others do not. The ones which get the letterbox I can actually "fix" to normal good size with the "Zoom" setting, but this completely falls through if the movies happens to have subtitles as this setting just chops them off.

Feels like a really silly problem to me and I am very frustrated with it at the moment. Can anyone help please?

Thank you.

Using the internal tuner within the tv will only pickup 4:3 images(standard squareish pictures), you can use the zoom modes to zoom in on them to fill out the screen but at the detriment of loosing the top and bottom of the image.

Check your DVD player setup, it is most likely set for a 4:3 TV, make sure it is set to 'Widescreen' or 16:9.

Then play a movie through your TV on widescreen and all should be good.

Some movies have black bars along the top and bottom as they are in a cinema format, but for most animations like finding nemo and shrek, they are in full 16:9 and take up the whole screen.

It doesn't look like this TV has digital tuners (I presume you have an extrnal digital STB?) - all analogue broadcasts are in 4:3 and you'll be stretching them in a 16:9 TV. A cheap STB for $130 will give you 16:9 FTA TV.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

I can back that up, that particular model doesnt have an inbuilt sd or hd tuner (only analogue) and a set top box should fix the problem.
You have a lcd tv - you've got to get a set top box to take full advantage of it!
I had the samsung standard definition set top box (retails for around $200) on my 68cm sony flatscreen and got good results - but being a 4:3 the widescreen broadcasts & dvd's had black bars on top & bottom - that's why I'm in the market for a 32" like yourself - probably a similar model.

Thanks for the replies!

I do feel silly, the DVD *was* set to 3:4 (and I never even knew it had an option to change it) and now I've set it to 16:9 the DVDs seem to be working fine. Thank you!

No, we don't have a set-top box, and I'm actually not even sure of what one is. One question though: we are planning on getting Foxtel in the very near future. Will this eliminate the need for a set-top box? Or will I still need one? And if so, what kind?

Again, thanks so much.

The Foxtel Digital STB will output in widescreen, so the Foxtel programmes will be fine.

As far as free to air - I believe that the main channels are available on Foxtel, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to watch the HD channels or the extra channels that each network transmits (eg ABC2). For that reason it may be worth getting a HD STB as well.

--

for a good quality hd stb I've been told you can't go past Pioneer.

Yeah the extra channels aren't on fox and the ones that are on there are ony broadcast in SD with the exception of Nine and TEN which are broadcast in analogue. They wouldnt give fox the rights to reproduce their SD signal (i thinks its Nine and TEN its two of the comercial channels anyways.)

Summary:
With Fox Digital Box You:
Will get all shows in Widescreen 16x9
Will get all Fox programs is SD digital
Will comercial channels ABC, SBS and Seven in SD digital
Will get comercial channels Nine and TEN is an Analogue

We're supposed to be getting Foxtel installed in 3-4 days. Would you recommend I wait until we have it and see if I still need the set-top box as well? Or should I just go shopping for one right now? I don't mind putting up with the TV as it is for 3-4 days (I don't watch much of it anyhow, mostly DVDs), but if I will end up needing the set-top box in the end anyhow, may as well pick one up tonight while the stores are open late.

Sorry for the likely inane questions, but what does a set-top box actually provide on top of Foxtel? Is it normal for people to have both, or do most folks with Foxtel find no real need for the set-top box.

Thanks.

The set top box (STB) will give you free to air digital transmissions. They can come in two types Standard Deffinition (SD) and High Deffnition (HD). EDIT: The added features (on top of your fox box) of the STB will be that you can recive free to air in HD (if you have a HD box) or that you can recive channel Nine and TEN in SD (is you have a SD STB)

I dont think you need both just yet I would wait untill more material is beeing shown in HD then invest in a HD tunner. Stick with fox for the moment if you find the free to air channels unbearable you can allways go and bet a STB later.

It's an interesting question (whether a free-to-air digital box will add anything to Foxtel). Personally, because your TV takes a HD signal, then I would go and purchase a HD Digital Set Top Box (these are a tv tuner in a VCR-esque box that sit "on top" of your TV). You can pick one up for around $400+.
However, your new TV has a HDMI connection (the future of everything home theatre) and within 3-6 months there will be a large range of HighDef STB's with a HDMI connection available (which gives improved picture quality).
So if I were you, I would go and buy a HighD STB in about 6 months - you will be blown away by the free-to-air picture quality.
Foxtel (digital) broadcasts in widescreen (most of the time, anyway) and this will give you basic SD picture, which will not be making full use of your new TV. But it should suffice for the next 6 months
IMHO