Yeah, but at least a squished image can be adjusted like you said. A stretched image being transmitted can't be fixed at all with aspect ratio changes. At least not on any of my tvs.Not if the signal is anamorphic widescreen like a DVD widescreen picture. Then it looks horizontally squished until you set the aspect ratio properly. The question I have is, why can't Dish do that so that we don't get crappy PQ when zoomed in both directions?
That is very true. My local TV station WMFD used to do that when they first started broadcasting 16x9. It was really annoying when they were also still broadcasting in analog 4x3, so I could easily see the difference just by switching channels back and forth. Fortunately, they eventually switched to true HD, and the stretching has not been an issue since then.
What I hate is that my local PBS station takes a "picture framed" SD 16X9 image from the center of the screen and then stretches that! It is both low resolution and stretched. The TV can not correct it as it thinks it is getting a 1080i 16X9 signal, whether OTA or from a paid provider. I wrote the manager a letter about it and she claims that there is nothing they can do, "it comes from PBS that way". I know that is not true as it is not that way in other cities.
