Widescreen VHS recordings on a 4:3 TV

"Nobody" wrote in message
...
OK, I'm going to try my best to explain this, although I don't know all
the terminology. I've had many a blank stare from salesmen, but I hope
you people will understand what I'm talking about!

I want to buy a new portable TV for the bedroom, but I need it to have a
specific feature. When I record digital channels from my widescreen IDTV
downstairs, the resultant tape recording is the widescreen picture
"squashed" horizontally into a full-frame 4:3 picture. When playing these
recordings back on the IDTV, the TV automatically stretches the picture to
fill the screen, so that it is displayed correctly (is this what is meant
by "anamorphic" widescreen?). All well and good, except for the fact that
when these recordings are played back on a normal 4:3 television (all the
ones I've tried at least), they are displayed as the "squashed" 4:3
picture.

What I need is a portable 4:3 TV that can squash these pictures vertically
so that they are displayed as letterboxed widescreen. Either
automatically, or via a manual function, I don't care as long as I can see
the picture in the correct ratio.

Does anyone know of any portable TVs (preferably with decent NICAM stereo)
that can do this? Is there a name for this feature if it even exists? Am
I making any sense at all?


Thanks.


Why not get a small LCD flat widescreen TV for upstairs (if you can afford
it)?

"John Russell" wrote...
Personnaly I've only seen this on very large 4:3 TV's as watching
"letterbox", anamorphic or otherwise, is rediculous on a small
4:3 TV.

My 14" Sony portable can handle anamorphic widescreen. Not sure if it
does automatic switching, but it can certainly do manual switching. You
are right, the picture is tiny, but it's better than watching in the
wrong aspect ratio.

"Chris" wrote in message
...
"John Russell" wrote...
Personnaly I've only seen this on very large 4:3 TV's as watching
"letterbox", anamorphic or otherwise, is rediculous on a small
4:3 TV.

My 14" Sony portable can handle anamorphic widescreen. Not sure if it does
automatic switching, but it can certainly do manual switching. You are
right, the picture is tiny, but it's better than watching in the wrong
aspect ratio.


Those of us watching SKY in a second room on a 4:3 TV via RF are used to
tempoarily watching in the wrong aspect ratio.

John Russell wrote:
Those of us watching SKY in a second room on a 4:3 TV via RF are
used to
tempoarily watching in the wrong aspect ratio.

Hmmm...I wonder if you can get glasses made that correct the aspect
ratio, or perhaps placing two bricks at the front of the set (to tilt it
upwards) would effectively reduce the height observed at normal seating
position :-)

--

Adrian C

"Mark Carver" wrote in message ...
Mat Overton wrote:
Or "16:9 compatible" as well as "widescreen compatible".

Seemed to be popular on a few sonys a while back, don't know if it is still
the case.

I have an LG 14 inch TV that I bought three years ago...

I have a Thorn tv, at least 10 years old, which does this, is it a record ??

"Nobody" wrote in message
...
OK, I'm going to try my best to explain this, although I don't know all
the terminology. I've had many a blank stare from salesmen, but I hope
you people will understand what I'm talking about!

I want to buy a new portable TV for the bedroom, but I need it to have a
specific feature. When I record digital channels from my widescreen IDTV
downstairs, the resultant tape recording is the widescreen picture
"squashed" horizontally into a full-frame 4:3 picture. When playing these
recordings back on the IDTV, the TV automatically stretches the picture to
fill the screen, so that it is displayed correctly (is this what is meant
by "anamorphic" widescreen?). All well and good, except for the fact that
when these recordings are played back on a normal 4:3 television (all the
ones I've tried at least), they are displayed as the "squashed" 4:3
picture.

What I need is a portable 4:3 TV that can squash these pictures vertically
so that they are displayed as letterboxed widescreen. Either
automatically, or via a manual function, I don't care as long as I can see
the picture in the correct ratio.

Does anyone know of any portable TVs (preferably with decent NICAM stereo)
that can do this? Is there a name for this feature if it even exists? Am
I making any sense at all?

Thanks for your responses, everyone. It proved quite difficult to find a
small 4:3 set that would do this, but I got one in the end - a 15" Philips
15PT6807 (with built-in DVD), which has a "16:9 compress" function. It
doesn't switch automatically, but I don't mind that.

Surprisingly, a function that Philips call "4:3 expand" seemed to be more
common. This does exactly the opposite of what I wanted, stretching the 4:3
picture vertically so that the top and bottom are chopped off. I assume
this is for people who want to get rid of the black bars on already
letterboxed pictures, but the result is what I was trying to avoid!

In message
"Nobody" wrote:

Thanks for your responses, everyone. It proved quite difficult to find a
small 4:3 set that would do this, but I got one in the end - a 15" Philips
15PT6807 (with built-in DVD), which has a "16:9 compress" function. It
doesn't switch automatically, but I don't mind that.

Surprisingly, a function that Philips call "4:3 expand" seemed to be more
common. This does exactly the opposite of what I wanted, stretching the
4:3 picture vertically so that the top and bottom are chopped off. I
assume this is for people who want to get rid of the black bars on already
letterboxed pictures, but the result is what I was trying to avoid!

Oh. My. God.

--
Kevin Bracey, Principal Software Engineer
Tematic Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1223 503464
182-190 Newmarket Road Fax: +44 (0) 1728 727430
Cambridge, CB5 8HE, United Kingdom WWW: http://www.tematic.com/