Any way to make DVI non widescreen?

[murdoc]

I know this dosn't fall under HDTV perse, but my Samsung DVD player has a DVI output, and I have it connected to my Samsung TV via DVI.  I've got a few older DVD's that are in fullscreen (4x3) format and they are stretched to fill the entire TV screen.  Any ideas about how I can fix this/change this?

[Mark Strube]

Usually in the DVD player settings you choose the aspect of your television. Choosing 4:3 in that should fix the problem, although I don't know what kind of difference the DVI output might make.

[davezen2]

The Samsung HD931 is an upconverting DVD player sending your TV a 1080i or 720p signal.  When receiving this signal most televisions (I don't know about your exact model) will lock into full-screen mode since it thinks it is getting a 16x9 HD signal from the player.

If you want to watch a 4x3 movie in a "wide zoom/normal" mode or whatever your Samsung model calls it, you need to set the player to output 480p. (press the "DVI VIDEO" button on the front panel 'till it's red)

Hope that helps,  

     ~dave

[smack]

and to add to what dave said....

you can not get a 4:3 picture via DVI with the 931.  The 931 locks full screen when going w/ DVI input.  You will have to use either the component or S video to watch "unstreched" material with it.

smack

[murdoc]

Thanks for the replys.  I kinda wish that I would have known that before I bought everything.  I guess that's the price you pay to get better picture from current DVD's.  I guess I will have to hope that these movies finally get released in widescreen.  

BTW, do any of you actually notice a picture quality change using DVI over component or by pressing the "DVI Video" button and changing resolutions.  All I really noticed is that if you press the button to a lower resolution, you just get a smaller picture on the screen.  I know that resolution basically is just picture size, but you are still changing from 480p to 720p to 1080i.  I can really tell a difference when changing resoultions on my D* HDTV box.

[mhz40]

IMO, DVI is over rated, especially for cable or satellite surfing, where each channel can produce different output formats (causing the HDTV to re-sync each time).  I have not noticed enough difference in picture quality to justify the distraction.