Im pretty new to all this 'Home Cinema' stuff so please be patient..

Anyway, I have a Thompson 3310 DVD player connected to a Schneider 28" Widescreen TV, via a scart cable. The DVD player has a S-Video out, but the TV has no input.

When I attempt to view Region 1 discs, the TV automaticaly switches to 4:3 mode with the picture in the centre of the screen and bars to the sides, and I am unable to adjust to a more suitable ratio of say 16:9, which most films of mine are in (Alien, Bugs Life, Fight Club ect)

The TV manual states "During NTSC playback and during playback of the RGB signal, a correct format switching is not possible"

Is there any cheecky way around this? NTSC to Pal converter? S-Video to Scart? for example that would work.

Thankyou in advance.

Carl

[Ian J]

I have not come across a television that will switch picture ratios automatically for PAL but not for NTSC as mine certainly does. I am no techie but I thought that a signal was given down one of the pins of the scart cable irrespective of whether it was a region 1 or 2 DVD. Certainly it works well on my TV

In the DVD setup you should have the option of setting the type of TV that you have. Make sure that it is set to widescreen.

Most TV's accept s-video through one or more of the scart sockets and if this is the case with yours an s-video - scart cable would allow you to use it. I don't think that this would have anything to do with auto widescreen switching though.

Thanks, but Ive cracked it.
For everyones refrence ive connected the player to the TVs input/output scart, and then viewed the DVD output as a AV signal, which comes out just fine. Possibly blindingly obvious now its mentioned, but there you go. The picture and colour on Bugs Life is superb, so there we are!

I have not come across a television that will switch picture ratios automatically for PAL but not for NTSC as mine certainly does

I have.

If you can't use scart pin 8 widescreen switching, the other option is line 21 WSS for NTSC and line 23 WSS for PAL. Some televisions don't do line 21 WSS. Usually the budget models.