Philips 34PW8520 34" Digital Widescreen HDTV TV

Rating:
Summary: Progressive Scan Is a Lie
Review: The progressive scan input has no aspect ratio control and so MOST DVDs are incorrectly STRETCHED across the frame. Letterboxed DVDs will still have black bars and the image will be unacceptably distorted. Only ANAMORPHIC or "enhanced for 16:9" DVDs will display properly!

The Widescreen Modes (Auto Wide, Zoom 14:9, Zoom 16:9, WideScreen, Picture Tilt, Subtitle Zoom, Conventional 4:3) listed in the specs are NOT available when watching via progressive scan. So the user has NO widescreen options to fix this problem.

Consequently, I have NOT been able to watch 90% of my DVDs in progressive scan mode. This is supremely frustrating.

Rating:
Summary: excellent picture quality without a progressive scan DVD
Review: this is a response to the previous review about poor perfomance.

1. you got the wrong TV for 90% of your DVD in letterbox ratio. this TV is meant for widescreen, 16.9 or anamorphic movies. for letter box ratios, get a normal tv.

2. with normal non progressive input, you can get progressive quality by having the tv do progressive mode on its own. this means you need not have a progressive DVD player to enjoy progressive quality video. this is really your best option for your letter box ratio dvds.