[Rizel23]

Got a 28" Sony Flat Screen TV the other day, but normal TV viewing in 'Smart Mode' is a little strange.

Model number is 'Sony KV28CL10S'

The problem is that the picture seems a little to stretched horizontally, as in heads look a little to wide, not hugely, but you can tell if you get what I mean.

Can anyone advise on what to adjust in the service menu to correct this, also have the problem viewing 4:3 aspect ratio DVDs in 'Smart Mode'. Cheers, Rizel

I've also just got a Sony (FX68) which has smart mode. Having played with the settings I think that smart mode behaves like this:

If the signal is widescreen, it will put your TV into 16:9 widescreen mode and you'll get a perfect picture.

If the signal is 4:3, it will stretch the picture to fill your screen - hence the distortion, with people looking fatter. This is done quite cleverly though, in that the middle third of your screen is left perfectly proportioned whilst the left and right sides are gradually stretched.

If you're a purist then I think you'll need to manually cycle through to 4:3 mode for 4:3 broadcasts. I personally leave the set in smart mode unless there's something on TV where the stretching really bugs me.

[Rizel23]

Cheers, yes thats exactly what its like, its not too bad, but i'd like to adjust it some how as its bugging me a little, if anyone can advise on which of setting i need to adjust please do post, cheers, Rizel

[HowieC]

I would strongly advise against trying to adjust the geometry of Smart mode.
You stand an excellent chance of messing up ALL the modes if you try.
Switch to a channel with a 4:3 output (eg Sky News) set the TV mode to 4:3 and then it should switch to Widescreen automatically when it detects it.
I personally cannot stand watching anything in smart mode, and stick to the format as per the transmission.

[Rizel23]

Ok cheers, but seems pretty pointless buying a 28" and having to use the 4:3 screen size as i'am only getting about a 21" vewing area which is what i upgraded from as most channels are in 4:3 still on NTL Digital.

Would it be better to adjust the 14:9 screen mode then so it fills the screen?

[HowieC]

If a transmission is in 14:9 then switching to 14:9 mode will fill the screen.
If your viewing mode does not match the transmission mode you will either crop or distort the image. Watch it how it was meant to be seen.