16:9 Enhanced Anamorphic On A 4:3 TV
Dear Gary: I am a new subscriber, and although my small apartment and moderate finances preclude my ownership of a killer home theatre, your articles and DVD reviews are invaluable. Being an early adopter, owning over 250 DVDs, I recently replaced my aging 27-inch S-video input-equipped Mitsubishi with Sony’s new component input equipped KV-27FS12 WEGA. The unit also sports a feature normally found only on their XBRs, namely 16:9 enhanced (anamorphic) and the ability to turn off Velocity Scan Modulation. With the VCM off, and the set in Standard picture mode, (the only one I’ll ever use) Video Essentials in hand, I adjusted the set. Anamorphic DVDs viewed with the KV-27 FS12’s 16:9 enhanced feature on, through my year old Sony DVP-57700 are pure pleasure, smooth, yet detailed and sharp depending on the movie itself. My questions are these: What exactly is the 16 :9 enhanced feature doing on a 4:3 TV. and how does it work? Why must I set up my Sony DVP57700 for 16:9 hookup and leave it there, switching only the TV to 4:3 mode when watching non-anamophic DVD
Alfred Aidala, Bronx, New York
Video Technical Editor Greg Rogers Comments:
A number of 4:3 (1.33:1) TVs have a feature to vertically shrink (squeeze) their scan line raster into a 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio. This is accomplished by changing the size of the signals that deflect the CRT electron beam in the vertical direction. The same number of horizontal scan lines still exist, they are just vertically closer together, and 1/8 of the screen height is not scanned at the top and bottom of the screen. In this mode, the TV appears to have a native 16:9 screen. This permits DVDs with the 16:9 enhanced (anamorphic) format to be displayed in their natural aspect ratio with no image distortion, and 33 percent more vertical resolution. But be sure to tell your DVD player that you have a 16:9 screen, or it will downconvert the 16:9 picture into a 4:3 letterboxed picture. If you play a DVD with a 4:3 picture, or a picture letterboxed inside a 4:3 frame, the image will appear to be squeezed vertically because the screen aspect ratio does not match the DVD aspect ratio. In that case, you must switch the TV back to its normal 4:3 screen mode. Unfortunately, some TVs automatically enable the 16:9 screen mode when they receive 480p signals from a progressive scan DVD player, and can’t be switched to the 4:3 screen mode. I believe your TV is one of those. In order to play 4:3 and 4:3 letterboxed DVDs without the image being distorted, you need to switch the DVD player to output 480i signals, so that you can change the TV back to its full 4:3 screen mode.
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