[Steve R Travis]

Is it possible to see the whole broadcast picture on the SONY KV-36HQ100B without any of the edges been cropped or the picture distorted by squeezing/stretching and if yes, how?

Hi Steve, welcome to the forums.
I have the Sony KD32DX200 which works on the same priciple as the KV36HQ100.
True 16.9 aspect ratio widescreen broadcasts shouldn't have any of the picture missing or chopped off. This applies to DVD/Terrestrial TV.
I have cable and a lot of the channels, especially music are not broadcast in widescreen and are broadcast in the 4.3 ratio.
If this is the case, the Tv detects this and stretches out the picture to fill the screen. This is known as smart mode.
If you don't want it being stretched you can adjust the aspect ratio with the control.
I don't think that there is really another way round it.
I hope this helps.
Vento

I have also noticed that if i watch anything through the aerial(RF) it is never in widescreen. However when switch over to the cable box it is ??
Does anyone else know why this is ?
Thanks

[per-Sony-fied]

All analogue broadcasts are using 4:3 so there is no switching signal. Channel 4 uses Pal+ which zooms the image to fit, actually instigates wide mode on my Panny for some reason.

Using a *digital* box feeding a TV via scart will normally throw the set into 16:9 ratio due to the box set-up being specified for type of screen attached. A program broadcast in widescreen via cable will always be 4:3 via analogue, occaisonally you'll get 14:9 broadcast.

I believe this in part is to encourage people to switch to digital.

[Steve R Travis]

Thanks for your answer. I haven't got to grips yet with a TV picture being stretched, squeezed or cropped etc. before digital I suppose, you now never see test card either, they would show any distortions? Or is there any channels that do.