Hello, Barry Wilkins asked: > I have a question about the latest Philips 42PF9966 42" plasma TVs. Not to be mistaken with the Philips 42PF9986 42" LCD TVs !! > It concerns the ability or otherwise of being able to expand a > 2.35:1 aspect image to fill the screen vertically while retaining > the correct proportionality of images, i.e. simply eliminating > some of the width to result in 16:9 aspect. There is no such thing as "simply eliminating some of the width" ! Only when there are empty side pillars, or when the picture content is protected by pan-scan vectors, could one safely cut off some of the side information. We have chosen not to do this in our TVs. > I find the present models will not allow this. Have you ever seen a consumer TV/monitor/display that does this, other than by setting up the geometry through some expert menu ? > They either fill the screen but distort the images horizontally, Yes, in the "automatic aspect ratio adaptation mode" it will do vertical zoom up to an aspect ratio of 18:9. The width remains constant. The source sends out a 16:9 signal, so the aspect ratio will then be distorted by a maximum factor of 18/16 = 1.125. > or you have the black bars top and bottom. As it was written on the DVD... The source is the boss ! > I know that many people may prefer to see the whole width but > I would be perfectly content with a larger image that made full > use of the screens proportions. I don't know that. I only remember fierce discussions in this list about the harm of having a few percent of overscan. This is not a subject that I would like to burn my fingers on again. ;-) > So, does this new model allow proportional expansion in both planes? No, unless maybe in the service menu. But not as you would like it. > Do you know if there will be a larger content of source material > in 16:9 aspect? I find that documentaries/drama on DVDs from the > UK/Europe have a larger proportion of 16:9 content. Also, the > quality is generally perfecto! From where are you calling ? 90% of my DVD collection is in 16:9 "anamorphic" format, and a good part of that still has some black bars on the top and bottom. The prices are according to the quality. I want to buy Season 7 of "Buffy", a 6-disc DVD set, uncensored (!), 16:9 and all, but the price of 90 Euro (approx. 110 dollar) is still holding me back. Here you get what you pay for. (Craig, is Santa subscribed to OpenDTV too ? Santa, do you read me ?) > I am very interested in one of these new screens but it is a large > investment for an item that for the majority of the time may not be > utilized efficiently in terms of picture height. You want to wait for screens that are wider than 16:9 ? That should draw Craig into an interesting discussion... ;-) It shouldn't be too difficult to write software for controlling the scalers to do what you want, but I doubt that our product management would see that as a wise move. I could suggest it. > The resolution of the 42PF9966 is I think 1366 X 768. This must be an > NEC type display rather than the Fujitsu 1024 X 1024 type used in > earlier models. Is this prefered because the Alis screen was interlaced > and the new one progressive? No, you are confusing it with the 42PF9986, which is a 42" WXGA LCD. The 42PF9966 has the 1kx1k ALiS. There is a 50PF9966 50" WXGA plasma with a NEC display. There is no ALiS available in that size. Greetings, -- Jeroen. |-----------------------------+---------------------------------------| | From: Jeroen H. Stessen | E-mail: Jeroen.Stessen@xxxxxxxxxxx | |-----------------------------+---------------------------------------| | Building: SFJ-5.22 Eindhoven| Philips Digital Systems Laboratories | |-----------------------------+---------------------------------------| | Phone: ++31.40.27.32739 | Visiting & mail address: Glaslaan 2 | |-----------------------------+---------------------------------------| | Fax: ++31.40.27.32572 | NL 5616 LW Eindhoven, the Netherlands | |-----------------------------+---------------------------------------| | Pager: ++31.6.6513.3818 | Visit us: http://www.pdsl.philips.com/| |-----------------------------+---------------------------------------| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.