why do pictures/people on widescreen tv's sometimes appear sort of squat? How can i avoid this?

Answer 1

In order to understand the answer to this question, you must first know a little background or info on the two main television standards. Standard definition programing, which is the standard format used for most stations and programming right now, is presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio. This means that it's pretty much a 'square' picture. For every 4 inches your screen is wide, it will be 3 inches in height.

The emerging technology for television broadcasting, however, is HD (High Definition) TV. This is presented in a widescreen, 16:9 aspect ratio. In addition to the wider format , which is actually closer to what humans perceive in the real world, high def programming offers many more lines of resolution than standard definition programing. The result: Crystal-clear, bright and vivid, colorful pictures, that look almost life-like compared to standard def programming.

Now, to explain your question...

When you try to display a standard definition 4:3 broadcast on a 16:9 display, you're going to have some un-used real estate on your television. In it's natural form, a standard definition image will not fill the entire screen of a wide-screen television. To compensate for this, a lot of TVs will "stretch" the image to fill the screen. Just like digital photo-editing on a computer...when you try to blow an image up, or enlarge it, you lose some detail, with the result being a slightly distored, or 'stretched' looking image.

There are usually a few settings on your TV that you can play around with to tell your TV how to handle standard definition broadcasts. Just click through them in your options menu to find which one you like the best. There will be one option that will display 4:3 broadcasts in their natural form. When this setting is selected, you'll notice black bars on the left and right sides of your screen, while the picture of the program is centered in the screen. It won't fill up the whole screen this way (remember, you're displaying a 4:3 image on a 16:9 landscape), but this way will look the best, as you won't have any distortion going on.

Hope this helps you. :)

Answer 2

You probably have a picture button on your remote. If you press it, it will give you a choice of 5 or 6 pictures. Press them one at a time until you get the best picture.