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General discussion

watching 4:3 on a panny (panasonic) 32'' tau pureflat hdtv

Sep 4, 2005 7:37AM PDT

I just purchased a Panasonic 32'' Tau HDTV 4:3. I am receiving the HD signal from WOW! Cable and using their Scientific Atlanta HD receiver. I love watching the HD content in 16:9 (US Open Tennis on CBSHD is stunning), and I knew I'd be watching letterbox for all HD content. Much to my surprise, my non HD channels are also broadcast in 16:9 (with windowbox - yes, i can stretch and zoom the regular channels, but that still only fills up to the letterbox). I thought with a 4:3 set that standard digital cable would fill my screen, and the HD would show in letterbox. I can't even use the Panny aspect button to change from 4:3 to 16:9, though that would just make everything smaller (the aspect button works with other video sources). I am using component (not HDMI). My DVD player signal (hooked up to the other component input) fills the screen (using fullscreen editions). So . . . . without distortion, I'm stuck with a 32'' TV that shows 29'' of HD in 16:9 and ONLY 25'' of non-HD! Is there any way to fill the 4:3 screen when watching non-HD content?

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watching 4:3 on a panny (panasonic) 32''
Sep 4, 2005 10:07AM PDT

CT-32HL15 Is this your model???
This seams to be a monitor only, no tuners. So you only get what you cable suppiles.
Have you hooked a VHS vcr to it??? How did it look??
Do DVD's look OK?? John

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watching 4:3 on a panny (panasonic) 32''
Sep 5, 2005 12:01AM PDT

yeah . . . that's my model. i had a philips 32 hdtv with all the bells and whistles (pip, built-in tuner, etc.), but the picture blew chunks. anyway (on the panasonic), i discovered that when i used composite video, the signal filled the screen . . . so i'm watching regular cable with composite and hd with component. sigh . . . oh well. i'm hoping to get a dvi to hdmi cable, but the monsters are so expensive. anyone know anything about www.lenexpo-electronics.com ? crazy low prices for their cables . . . all home made but with life time warranty. the panasonic supports progressive scan, but my dvd player is not progscan, so the picture is good, but not excellent. my vhs looks only ok . . . wishing for a dvr. man, i'm wordy. maybe that's why no one is replying to me.

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Cables
Sep 7, 2005 3:24AM PDT