HD Ready?!!

[Webby541]

Hi All,

A Newbie here!

About 6 years ago, I bought a KDL-32S3000 HD Ready Sony Bravia LCD TV which has, and still does, work brilliantly and faultlessly as a stand alone SD TV.

Up to now I have not been in a position financially, to add an external device that would allow me to watch TV in glorious HD.

I have always been a Sony man, going back to CRT Trinitron days, however a piece of kit with the specs I require is not made by Sony as yet, so I plumped for a competitor.

I bought a Panasonic DMR-BWT720 Blu-ray Disc Recorder with Twin Freeview HD Tuners.

This recorder detects a screen resolution of 1080i for my TV, which according to the Sony Manual, is supported by my TV.

When 1080i is selected on the Panasonic Unit (either automatically or manually), the 16:9 picture displayed on the TV Screen, whether in SD or glorious HD, is unfortunately 'stretched' vertically, ie: people look taller and thinner than they should be.

Worryingly, I have a bad feeling that someone is going to finally tell me that my TV is too old and therefore, incompatible.

Q: When is an HD Ready TV not HD Ready?

A: When its 6 years old and not connected to another Sony Device!

I sincerely hope not!

Regards

Webby541

[Bravia55HX]

Hi,

this is nothing to do with age or incompatability with your tv so no need to worry about that, this is more of a picture settings issue with the Panasonic player, you will need to go into the menu of the player and check its picture output settings and adjust them accordingly.

[Webby541]

Hi,

The Panasonic unit has an auto detect setting, and selects 1080i for the Sony. The Sony is supposed to support 1080i, but the picture proportions are not right. Even if you manually select 1080i, the result is the same.

I have connected the Panasonic unit to a cheap LOGIK TV and it selects 1080i for this TV and the picture and screen proportions are spot on

[Bravia55HX]

Hi again,

in the menu settings of the tv go to display settings, screen, then change the screen format till it displays correctly, you keep saying that the sony is supposed to support 1080i and it does, the resolution is not the problem but the display setting is.

[Webby541]

When viewing SDTV via the Sony TV's own tuner, the menu settings are Settings - Screen - Auto Format (on) - Screen Format (choice of Wide / Smart / 4:3 / 14:9 / Zoom) set to smart.

When viewing SDTV or HDTV from the Pansonic's Tuner (any resolution settings), the Sony Menu settings available are: Settings - Screen - Auto Format (on or off, it makes no difference). The Screen Format settings options (Wide, Smart, etc), don't appear, so they can not be altered.

The fact that the Wide, Smart, etc,  options are missing while viewing via the Panasonic unit, would seem to be what is the root of the problem. What do you think the solution might be?