"Ian Jackson" wrote in message ...
Last week, I treated myself to a small flat-screen TV set - a 16" Linsar 16LVD4 from John Lewis. I had fancied one for some time,
and spotted one among the customer returns, £30 off, marked "Returned as "Unsuitable". [Normal 5-year guarantee.]

Despite being a bottom-of-the-range model, the picture quality is, in my opinion, among the best for this type of set (after doing
all the usual tweaks of the factory settings, of course).

However, I found that I had a problem. I simply could not get the picture aspect ratio to switch automatically between 16:9 and
4:3, even though, in the picture menu, the 'Picture Zoom' was set to 'Auto'. Doing the change manually it is quite a long-winded
process (although it would probably be something I could live with).

However, last night, I was playing in the menus, and in 'Feature', I came across an option in the to change the 'Default Zoom'
setting. It was set to 16:9, so I tried 4:3. To my delight, I found that the automatic aspect ratio now changed as it should.

When I think of it, I realise that this behaviour is understandable if the Widescreen Signalling signal is not present on 4:3
pictures. Presumably, it works by being absent or present, rather than actually telling the TV whether select 4:3 or 16:9.
However, I can see no obvious reference in the instruction manual warning the user to ensure that the default zoom should normally
be set to 4:3, as I have described.

Is this a quirk peculiar to this particular TV set?

No, my Samsung switches correctly when the "screen mode" is set to 4:3
and the "autowide" parameter is enabled"

Seems slightly contra-intuitive, but there again most of the great unwashed out
there do not want the AR switching to work correctly, at any rate they want the
screen to be filled with picture regardless.

--
Graham.

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