# 522 and widescreen TV



## Presence (Mar 14, 2004)

I just bought my first widescreen television, and was wondering how you get the 522 to configure to output in 16x9? I remember way back when, I remember seeing a setting for 16x9 output in one of my old receivers (a 3900 I think it was). I can't find this setting on the 522.

Also, how do you get widescreen to work correctly? The TV I bought is a Westinghouse 37" flat panel LCD. It's pure monitor - no tuner - but obviously that isn't a problem when you have a DISH receiver. Anyway, it has three aspect ratio settings: standard, fill, and zoom. Standard is the old-school 4:3 look, I take it. What I don't understand is how to watch a widescreen movie properly. In Standard mode, the black bars above and below the picture are there as usual (as well as on the sides, since it's a widescreen monitor in standard mode). If I set it to Fill, the picture stretches so the bars on the sides are gone and the picture seems to be stretched to fill the sides. That includes the black bars on top and bottom too, though. Zoom does just that, and gets rid of the bars but crops some of the picture too.

I thought the whole point of a widescreen monitor was to be able to see the entire widescreen picture, no bars?


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Many movies are done in a format wider than 16:9, such as 2.35:1. In those cases, you will still have black bars, even in "widescreen" mode. 

Also, check your TV's manual. It should explain the difference between "full" and "zoom". But, usually, "full" stretches the pic horizontally. This should be the correct format for viewing HD content through an HD input. (Your 522 doesn't output HD signal, btw.) Zoom usually stretches all directions equally. 

Both of the above stretch methods are usually bad for stretching 4:3 images to 16:9 format. Most better HD monitors will have a setting that "zooms" the center of the image, while "stretching" the extreme sides. That creates a more realistic, less distorted image. On Sony TV's, it's called "wide zoom". Dish HD receivers call it "partial stretch". My Hitachi projector calls it something like "cinema zoom".

Westinghouse is a low-end brand that may not have a mode like that. It doesn't sound like it from your description.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

The "4x3" and "16x9" settings have no effect on Dish's standard definition receivers, as far as I know. These receivers never output an anamorphic signal, and hence the output is fixed at a 4x3 aspect ratio. The TV can display this with black bars, with grey bars, stretch it to fill the screen (in a uniform fashion or otherwise), or zoom it by cutting off the sides and top and bottom.

When watching a widescreen movie on DVD, the DVD player must be set to 16x9 (in its settings menu) in order for it to send the proper anamorphic signal. This will make the DVD player anamorphically squeeze the video, so that when the TV's "Fill" mode stretches it back out, one has the correct aspect ratio.


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## Presence (Mar 14, 2004)

I figured as much with the Dish receiver. But even when I watch a DVD, one that is supposedly "widescreen," the TV is simply stretching the picture horizontally when I select Fill. The bars on the top and bottom do not change size at all. Selecting Zoom seems to help the problem, but doesn't sound like I should need to be doing. The DVD player is set to 16x9 output and is connected via component cables.


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