The picture proportion can be changed.. there are several choices.

We have a 52" Widescreen......took me awhile to get used to it.I wanted a biger squarer one but we went with the 52.now Larry's makng a " football room" in our one room that no one uses.So I told him he could have that TV if he got me a bigger one for the LR.We bought a 57" the other day.It's a bigger more square screen.I think I'll like it better when it gets here.They "delivered" it yesterday...only problem is they delivered a 50" ! So they're bringing the right one tomorrow! LOL! This 50" is great though,beautiful color on it.I'd like to keep it for the BR LOL! But can't afford TWO new TV's! We are sort of TV junkies I think.The bigger the better! We have a 39" JVC in the LR too...yes two TV's in the LR.I have my LR set up like two rooms(it's so stinkin' BIG! ) Whoever built this house went nuts on the LR! The JVC has a beautiful picture and color...We had a 60" (I forget what kind) last week....but I wasn't happy with the color,looked washed out.So returned it and went with the 57" LCD.Can't wait tiil it gets here!We also have a 29" in the BR and a 19" in the spare BR that no one even uses! I think I need to get rid of a couple TV's! LOL!
Anyway..yes the people looked sorta squished on the 52" so I'm going bigger...more square.

We have a 55 inch Diamond Mitsubishi 1080i High Def TV. I haven't noticed any serious distortion on the stretch mode. It's very subtle if it's there at all.

Mostly we watch High Def channels, and they are broadcast in widescreen so there is no stretching needed. But even on regular stations there isn't any noticeable stretching - the quality is fabulous.

Perhaps it has more to do with the brand of TV or his delivery system. We have Direct TV and love it. Also High Definition reception might be making a difference.

I think it's all in the ratio- the 16:9 ratio makes regular TV show people look short and fat. Our LG tv has about 5 or 6 different ratio settings and I like to use the fairly square one for TV and the 16:9 for movies and football. The ones in between make a distortion if there is anything running across the bottom, like a fish-eye distortion, and I hate that, too. I don't like looking at normal sized people and finding them short and fat. It's very distracting to me.

He has his set on the wrong mode for his screen then. We have four. All he needs to do is read his manual to find out which one he should be using.

Definitely has the ratio set wrongly.

Not all programs are transmitted in wide screen format so it affects your aspect ratio. (16:9 or 4:3)

Our aspect ratio is set to 4:3 (the old standard) and when a high def widescreen program comes on, it adjusts itself.

However, to watch a dvd movie, we have to select the right ratio to get 16:9 if we are playing a widescreen movie.

Well, that's good to know. I was concerned because eventually I'll want a new TV--probably a few years down the line--and since my signal comes from an antenna I only get the networks and no HD.

I'll bet my friend has never opened the manual. He's a poet, and "electronically challenged." I'll suggest that he give it a shot. :-)

Thanks!

So do you have to change this ratio thing when you change channels depending on what you want to watch or if it's broahcast in HD or not?

When we bought our 42 inch from Best Buy over a year ago, the technition came out the same time our Cable guy came and and we paid extra for that, and they installed, and set up the TV for us. Spent about 2-3 hours but if we have trouble we then call the Cable person to adjust it. Here they do it free.

I love my Sony LCD. Had it for two years now. Over my mantle.
Beautiful color and vision!
Could not be more pleased!

I dunno nothing about ratio aspects. LOL! We had our TV set up 5 years by the installers and haven't touched a set up option since.

Tally, maybe you can find a button on the TV remote that says "ratio". If you push that, it'll show you what your TV is set on, then you can arrow up or down, or just keep pushing it, to change it to something else or go back to what you had, if you liked that. You'd be surprised at how the picture changes shape. It's like taking a photo in photoshop and stretching it wider or taller, big differences. We change the ratio several times a night, sometimes, depending on what we're watching.

Susan, all channels will broadcast in HD soon. That's the reason regular TVs are in limited supply in stores now. You'll be forced to get a new television sooner than you think or you will have get an adapter that converts the signal for us regular TV owners. On top of that, there are other choices to make between Blue Tooth and HD. All the new technology reminds me of the Beta/VHS war. Actually, it's the same thing all over again. Will be interesting to see which one wins out. Sony and Disney are pushing for Blue Tooth, which makes the winner pretty obvious. But then, Sony pushed for Beta, so it just might not mean anything. I can't help thinking and hating Sony rules the technology world where these things are concerned. Well, sorta and sorta not. Anyway, I just wish they'd come on and get it over with. Someone like myself and the work that I do stand in limbo not knowing which way to turn.

I got caught up in my own concerns there. Sorry because I meant to also add that your friend might need to learn which channels to tune to. Determining that will provide consistency between his settings and the broadcast signal. For example, I have Comcast, which provides three different signals at the moment. The reason is so regular TV users can still take advantage of better definition TV even though they don't yet have HD televisions and so HD television owners take full advantage of high definition.

Here is how it works for me.
There are the regular broadcast stations, some of which do broadcast in HD but not always.

There are also the HDTV channels for those with High Definition televisions. For example, ABC here is Channel 7, but HD format is Channel 7a and there are several others.

Finally, there are the digital channels, which are the regular broadcast stations but on a different channel. It's their beta process to test the digital system. As of January, everything will be sent over a digital signal. In the meantime, we get to see the analog stations (regular broadcast) in a much better picture.

Because your friend has a HD television and depending on his provider (assuming he has cable, DirectTV, or another one), he may just need to learn which channels to turn to in order to synchronize is setting based on the output signal.

oops
. . . in order to synchronize "his" setting based on the output signal.

I like both of mine.I have 2 -42" sonys.Like they said you can change that.

bestlawn mentioned blue tooth? Is this the same as blue ray? And what is it?

Thanks for the tip Flamingo, but honestly I wouldn't change a thing on our set - even if I knew how :) I remember the technician showing us how to change the picture when it was first installed, but he recommended a setting and we haven't changed it since.

This picture is crystal clear, beautifully proportioned and dead bang perfect no matter what channel we have it on, but we've only ever used this set with Direct TV so maybe it has something to do with their broadcast?

I did notice last night when we were watching one of the SVU stations that the picture was squared off with black bars to the side, but that's very rare and is more about how the station is telecasting. That may tell you something about the ratio our set is set on, I dunno. Still, the quality was perfect and I wouldn't have adjusted it even if I could have figured it out.

The Direct TV techs that were out a couple of weeks ago to switch out the box stood and watched the picture. They said the quality was amazing considering it was a 5 year old set and 1080i, not 1080p.

We also have a progressive scan DVD player, and watching widescreen movies is like having our own private theater.

Alisande, you're going to wonder how you ever lived with a square box TV once you make the change! And yes, you will eventually have to switch over to a digital set, because eventually all the networks will have to relinquish all their old analog signals by 2009. This has been a mandate for 10 years, giving people the opportunity to make the switchover as they needed to replace their existing sets.

"Congress Sets Deadline for Digital TV Switchover

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, with little fanfare, the U.S. Congress has thrown down the gauntlet for consumers who have yet to make the changeover to digital TVgo digital by February 17, 2009, or go without television.

The provision mandating a switchover to all-digital broadcast by that date was part of a deficit reduction legislation bill passed in late 2005 by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. To ease the transition, the legislation also earmarks $1.5 billion to help consumers buy digital converter boxes, providing up to two $40 coupons per household that can be used to offset the purchase price.

The eventual elimination of analog broadcasting of television programming will free up portions of the radio spectrum currently allocated for that purpose. Some of the freed up spectrum will be reallocated for use by emergency services, while other portions will reportedly be auctioned off to wireless companies. As part of their calculus, lawmakers estimate that the auction could generate as much as $10 billion in revenue for the federal government, and have earmarked $7.4 billion of that amount for cutting the federal deficit (hence the connection with the budget legislation).

An estimated 15% of U.S. households (or about 16-20 million households) continue to rely on over-the-air television broadcasts. Those consumers will either need to upgrade their current televisions to digital-ready TV, purchase a converter box to receive digital signals, or subscribe to a cable or satellite service by early 2009."

Well, was I thinking telephones, or what???
Hey, you see what time it was.
I was up working all night and more tired than I thought.
Sorry

Yep, I meant blue ray or blu-ray. It's a different type of laser mechanism than those used to make regular DVDs. Done with the blue violet laser rather than red. The great part is they store way more information. Plus it can be layered, unlike the one dimensional DVDs, which multiplies the storage space. The war is between blue ray and HD DVD, being entirely different formats though both are different from DVDs as we know them. Even though blue ray stores more data, HD DVD can reach blue ray's storage capacity in a third level layer. Sound complex yet? Well, the bad part is neither can read the other's data. Thus, the war is on, and we're caught in the middle.

Does Beta/VHS ring a bell? Blu or HD - same thing. I wonder which one will eventually get the nod from FCC?

I don't know on what the FCC bases their decision, don't know the process, and didn't know the FCC makes the decision. They didn't decide on VHS. As far as I could tell, they who best controlled the consumer market did, which were the manufacturers and promoters of VHS until Sony finally gave up the ghost. It was weird to me since Beta was the better between the two. It just didn't seem to matter. I'd love to hear your thoughts on FCC control.

It's really hard to tell right now. If I may venture a guess, my money's on blue ray (or blue-ray rather) so far since the technology is more advanced, but that's only for the moment, I'm sure. I also think blue ray supports more of the most common audio and video formats.

Research and development are working on increasing capacity to 100gb on both blue ray and HD DVD, but that might be later down the road (they always piecemeal technology to the public), but it will be interesting to see which one handles it more efficiently. That is to suggest they will both be around then. One might win out sooner than it becomes available.

At any rate, hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into this war from both sides. It really seems to me blue ray is backed by the biggest of the major players and more of them. I also think it will have a lot to do with global opinion, or rather global persuasion LOL.