Page 1 of Widescreen TV distortion?

I`ve just had a UK Philips 32 inch Digital Widescreen set.

I`ve been testing it out over the last three days, and am generally pleased with it, but have come across 2 problems. It overscans a lot, which is made even worse on full zoom, where I lose a lot of image, and...

...It distorts. At first I put it down to the effect of anamorphic enhancement; stretching the image out. Then I noticed it on 4:3. SO I tried it on full 16:9 zoom, and it still seemed there. The distortion was very distracting during the image, things seem to expand as they move toward what is roughly the point where 4:3 borders are, then squash again as they go toward the screen edges. In the end I put one of the THX optimizers through, which has a series of perfect squares across the screen with a white dot in the middle. Indeed, the more I expanded the image out (or went to widescreen stretch mode), they distorted into increasing oblongular shapes, then start to decrease as they go toward the edges, confirming what i suspected. In anamorphic widescreen mode, all the oblongs should have been the same horizontal length, but they weren`t. in zoom mode, the horizontal lengths of the boxes were also different, wheras their vertical lengths remained consistant with the size increases.

I find this distortion horribly distracting, it`s like things keep getting fatter as they go toward the edges, like a bad 2.35:1 anamorphic camera lens, only worse.

...But is this a widescree TV norm? If it is, I wish I`d stuck to 4:3!

I passed the same `squares` optimiser through my PC`s DVD-ROM, which displays 16:9 images in a 16:9 window. The squares did not distort on there, so it`s clearly the TV set.

...Any help would be appreciated. I`m hoping I can get a technician to come and sort ths out, I don`t want all the agro of taking the TV back for another one which may be the same.

"I find this distortion horribly distracting, it`s like things keep getting fatter as they go toward the edges" You right, you have hit it on the nose there!

Quite honestly, I never use the zoom button on a DVD player.You should watch a film as its meant to be watched, ie, normally.

I personaly think `zoom` is very sore on the eyes if watching a long film.

The zoom button on almost any DVD player is a real waste of space, you do get the above distorsion and the occasional blurring of action on a widescreen telly using this. (the exception, may be very expensive sets, others will answer that one).

But if you still feel there something wrong with your TV then sort it out with replacement or technician, but I can assure you TV pictures do distort to some extent with the `Zoom` function.

This item was edited on Monday, 24th March 2003, 22:39

Have you got your DVD players actually set to output a 16:9 image?

Maybe its giving out a standard 4:3 image and the TV is trying to be clever?

Or maybe you have a duff TV?

You both seem to have completely misunderstood my e-mail.

I was referring to using the 16:9 zoom on the widescreen TV (not DVD player) for non-anamorphic widescreen disks. This along with the anamorphic stretch were ways of testing that the distortion I was seeing was constant, and not a result of different viewing confuration settings.

I have both the player and TV set correctly, but have side parts of the screen which do distort badly, and I know it`s not normal now. I work in TV & Video production, and used the same THX optimizer I put through this set on the LG and JVC widescreen sets we ahve at work, and they didn`t distort in the same way.

I`ve got a Philips technican coming on Friday to correct the overscan and off-centre 4:3 image, so I`m hoping he can do something aboutt he distirtion as well. My big worry is that this a model design flaw, and not a correctable fault. It`ll mean getting rid of the set and looking for another by another fanufacturer.

Which TV model is your Philips?

"You both seem to have completely misunderstood my e-mail.

I was referring to using the 16:9 zoom on the widescreen TV (not DVD player) for non-anamorphic widescreen disks."

Bl@@dy hell!!!!!

An all singing & dancing TV, is`int technology wonderfull, (when it works) Hope you get is sorted ok.

it`s a 32DW6557. Can`t say I`m impressed so far. initial impressions in the shop were good, but these issues since are another matter. I`ve found that NTSC is slightly strecthed vertically as well, creating the impression that the overscan is more extreme than it really is (when zoomed in anyway).

Also, the anamorphic modes don`t seem to be responding correctly if it goes from an anamorphc image back to 4:3. instead of recompressing the 4:3 bit, it further stretches the 16:9 menu before it...sheesh...

Hopefully this`ll all turn out to be clumsy configuration by someone at the factory, and nothing to worry about.

Anyway, I`ve just run off a new configuration screen of my own design in Photoshop, and will try it in the morning, see if sheds any more light on this...