Because of the change of the screen from 4x3 to 16x9 I too can't see how.
I have a Sony Bravia HDTV and Time Warner HD cable. Also a
Samsung DVD/VHS combo unit. The Time Warner cable guy installed these as follows: (1) HDMI
cable from DVD/VHS combo directly to the TV; (2) component cables from cable
box to DVD/VHS combo unit and then from combo unit to the TV. The way it was
working during that time was that only DVDs would play, tapes would not play.
But all television channels - HD or SD - appeared full screen. And I swear
there was no distortion of the image on the SD channels.
Then the other day one of my kids wanted to watch an old
tape we had laying around. So I reconnected as follows: (1) HDMI cable from
DVD/VHS combo; (2) HDMI cable directly from cable box to television; (3) composite
cables from DVD/VHS combo unit to the TV. Now the combo unit will play tapes as
well as DVDs. But when we watch television, the SD channels are now showing
with black bars on the sides.
I can use the Stretch function so that the
SD channels fill the screen, but the pictures are distorted. Same with the Zoom
function.
Is anyone familiar with this and know how to get the setting
back the way it was? I've had a Time Warner guy out to look things over, but he
simply set the Stretch function and said that was the only way to get
full-screen SD channels.
Perhaps I'm simply not remembering right, but I don't
remember the full-screen SD channels looking distorted under the old set up. Of
course, I could just be hallucinating again. Can someone advise me? Thanks very
much.

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