"16:9 Compress and Zoom" means?

I'm buying a TV overseas, went to the shop yesterday and got confused again! I thought the TV I was to buy was widescreen, but I'm now not so sure. The blurb doesn't say, except for "16:9 Compress and Zoom". The shop assistants are not always knowledgeable or honest, so can't be relied upon.

So, would this TV be widescreen?

Models (but not sold in UK, see next post):
HV-29VH14
AV-29MX75

Thanks.

[bsuttie]

From the picture I can see neither of those are widescreen. If in doubt take a tape measure with you. If the Width / Height is 4/3 roughly then it's 4:3, If the Width / Height is 16/9 roughly then it's widescreen.

16:9 compress would suggest that you can feed it a 16:9 picture and it will compress the image to letterbox it (but maintaining the full resolution), zoom would suggest that you can feed it 16:9 and enlarge it horizontally to show 4:3 centre cutout.

regards

Brian

[Andy98765]

Which country are you buying it in and which one are you bringing it back to. You may possibly find it will not be compatible with the broadcasting standards of the country you are bringing it back to. What make are the sets?

[fallenangle]

If the actual physical size ratio of the screen is 4:3 its a standard format TV. I've not come across the term 16:9 Compress before but the 4:3 TVs I do know which have a 16:9 mode do allow a true widescreen result from a widescreen source. However it could be just a 4:3 to 16:9 format converter ie. with 'minimal' distortion the 4:3 image is forced into a letterbox format. Which of these it is I can't tell.

'Zoom' is likely to be useful for the exact opposite ie. converting a 16:9 or more letterbox shaped format to fill the full 4:3 screen. Obviously you lose part of the image when this is done.