[tomdkat]

Originally posted by MurDiddlyUrdler
To demonstrate I've captured a frame from Rounders using PowerDVD (with zero overscan on my computer) and cropped it to a 16:9 ratio.

Thanks for the screen shots. One thing I find that's VERY interesting is in the 16:9 "cropped" picture. I DO see where the subtitles are chopped, but the right and left sides of the image look EXACTLY like the 4:3 image above it. This looks to me like only the top and bottom was cropped which is different than the entire image being zoomed in. When I watch 4:3 2.35:1 material on my Toshiba 57HX81 in "Full" mode, the image is stretched horizontally and the letterbox bars are "huge". If I switch to the "TheaterWide 2" video mode, the letterbox bars look the same as if I was watching an anamorphic DVD, but the sides are also cropped. I'm not sure how PowerDVD did the cropping you illustrated and how that differs from how your TVs video modes work.

The Toshiba SD-4800 automatically recognizes whether it's 16:9 or 4:3 material. 16:9 material automatically fills my 16:9 screen. You have the option on 4:3 material of having it fill a 16:9 screen by stretching or having it display it correctly by adding black bars on the side. I like this because black bars on the sides are less distracting than the gray bars my TV uses to display 4:3.

This is a VERY cool feature, indeed...
[quote]This also lets me leave the TV set on STANDARD mode at all times. No need to change the display settings on the TV.Is "Standard" the same as "Full" on your TV or is that a separate video mode? (I'm not ery familiar with Mits TVs).

That's one feature the SD-4800 does not have. It's a nice feature, but it's something I can live without considering the other features it does have. The SD-4800 does do auto-resume if you turn the player off, but will not do it after you've removed the disc like the Sony does.

It DOES sound like the video features of the Toshiba far outweigh the usability feature of the Sony so it sounds like the Toshiba is a better player for you. If you can't really tell which video output you like the best yet, that implies they are VERY close (I think you might have even stated that earlier) in video performance, thus making the Toshiba the "winner"....

Of course, I'm NOT making your decision for you but simply based on what you've described about the SD-4800 so far, it sounds like an obvious choice for you. Now I'm wondering why other SD-4800 owners haven't discussed these video features of this player earlier.

Thanks for the great status reports!

Peace.....