Will the new wide-screen TV confuse mom?
November 21, 2005

Submitted by: Paul Moss, via e-mail
I ordered a wide-screen, 37-inch Panasonic TV (TH-37PX50U) from Best Buy for my mother this week. I am concerned that since most of her viewing will be standard definition (4:3), she will have to constantly make adjustments--very few HDTV stations are available yet. Do you think that will be a problem for her?

David Katzmaier, senior editor
Hi Paul, I hope your mom enjoys the new TV. A couple of modes are available for non-high-def stations on that television, and they both distort and/or crop the image in some way to fill the screen. The Justified mode does a good job without too much distortion, so that would be the setting I recommend. I don't anticipate her having to change aspect ratios too much as long as she doesn't mind the distortion. Many TV watchers, in my experience, are usually oblivious to stretched or otherwise distorted images. For example, I know my mom would rather watch stretched TV than have the image not fill the screen.

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