You may or may not know that there is a reason manufacturers like for
you to use gray bars to "fill in" mismatched video formats on LCD and Plasma
TVs - to prevent phoshor burn and image retention. You may be able to
defeat it, but a year later (sometimes much sooner) you'll be watching
something in 16x9 and see a "nice" 4x3 "shadow" down the middle of the
picture where it had been operated in that mode without the benefit of the
gray bars to "even out" the aging of the phosphor or Liquid Crystal display
panel. The only current set completely immune to burn-in that I know of are
the DLP front or rear-projection instruments. I use a digital settop box on
a 4x3 rear projection tv, and when watching a 16x9 on it, I allow the settop
box to produce the gray bars... I don't want to ruin the picture on my set.


"Andy C" wrote in message
...
I've just got back from helping someone set up their new TV, (a JVC
LT-26C31LCD). It's 16x9, but when a 4x3 image is shown in its proper size
&
aspect ratio, the TV inserts bright grey at the sides rather than the
usual
black. I have heard from someone with the same TV but his is putting black
in there. Any ideas before we battle with the shop to get it 'fixed'?, (no
doubt the shop will just blow up the image to 16x9 and call it fixed!)

Cheers, Andy C