Annoying DVD Player Behavior

[Bobby]

So there I was, 3AM in the morning, putting the "Dr. Strangelove..." DVD in the inexpensive DVD player I picked up not too long ago for my workroom (Toshiba SDK990 from Costco). That DVD is in 4:3 mode (fullscreen) and I think the original movie was that way.

Anyhow, it was showing wide on the LCD TV . I hunted around for a zoom control to handle that, but all I found was some kind of zoom-in control and nothing that would show the movie properly in 4:3 mode.

I finally found a passage buried in the back of the book that says if you use HDMI 1080p output (which I am) the video will always be 16:9. To get 4:3, I had to change the output to 480p, but of course in that mode there would be no upconvert. No horrible biggie, but annoying nonetheless.

The zoom on my main living room player handles the situation just fine.

So, I went back to bed...

[Steve Grisetti]

I hope you still got to see one of my favorite movies, Bobby!

[Bobby]

I am finishing it this afternoon. Yup, always a favorite, and it is paired in my library with "Fail Safe", of course. Bookends of a bygone era (Cold War).

[Bob]

I used to have a Toshiba DVD player with upconversion. It died earlier this year and I replaced it with a different brand, I don't remember exactly which model the one I had was or what needed to be set, but I was able to get 4:3 piller boxed in a 16:9 frame. I know I had it set to hdmi 16:9 to get the upscaling and match the set. I think I had to set the view options to "autofit" or something like that, the default was full display which streatched the image. Of course, your model may work differently.