widescreen 16:9 setting

i'm not sure i understand the question... but correct me if i'm wrong.

aren't the TV shows you are watching 4:3? the movies are 16:9, right? aren't you just saying that they are playing back correctly?

if a show is 4:3, some set top boxes give you the option to change aspect ratios... some TVs also have an "aspect" or "wide" button that you can use to toggle through different modes, but many TVs lock you into 1 or 2 modes for HD sources and only allow lots of stretching and zooming modes on SD or 480i source material.

however, if you adjust the aspect on a 4:3 program on a 16:9 set you are either going to do one or a combination of the following...
1) crop material off the top and bottom of the raster
2) stretch the image uniformally horizontally (making people fat)
3) stretch the image variably in a progressive manner (like Panasonic's "just" or Pioneer's "natural wide")

yes, the files play back "correctly", but i think what people would like is the option to have 4:3 content "stretched" as this is how most of us watch 4:3 content normally.

ah, i see... well, i think that it is best that the Apple TV outputs a fixed aspect ratio for each source type and then let the TV adjust the aspect as necesary... just like the Apple TV does not adjust volume, leaves that up to the TV / stereo system, the same theory applies to video content.

this is just my opinion of course.

i think that the consequence of having various aspect ratios is that some people will have the HDTV on 1 aspect ratio, such as zoom, and then have the Apple TV on another setting, such as stretch... and basically you are going to have major cropping of the whole image... or instances where you have black boarders around the whole image and a little picture in the middle... you know... remove as many variables as you can and work with the lowest common denominator. bascially, adding aspect ratio control would add more confusion and compromised performance than it would benefit.

unfortunatlely, there are some 1st generation HDTVs that do not allow aspect ratio adjustments on anything except for standard definition sources... all HD content is fixed in "full".... so these people will be stuck with 4:3 or 16:9... but fortunately these are the "correct" modes to watch this material. more and more content will become standardized to 16:9, so this is just a temporary effect. you can buy TV shows on the iTunes store today which is 16:9. all modern HDTVs that i have played with do allow at least 2, if not 3 or 4 different aspect ratio modes on HD sources.

no no no this is just the issue. for example, my cable box is for HDTV. when it's outputting HD content, it sends the TV a 720p signal (i could change that to 1080i but i chose 720p). when it's outputting standard def channels, it outputs a 480i signal. My TV sees the 480i signal and stretches it, making John Stewart look a little heftier than he really is. I like that, mostly because i don't have to worry about burn-in issues (although i know that new sets don't have to worry about this, but i'm mildly OCD when it comes to technology). when the cable box is playing an HD channel, the TV leaves the signal alone. This setup, IMHO, is optimal.

What i think the poster is grousing about (at least this is my issue) is that when you set the Apple TV to output 720p in the settings (you have to set the output resolution to something) this setting sticks for aLL content, regardless. So when i play a 4:3 tv show, my TV is seeing 720p and not dealing with it properly (as i define proper anyway). it's an issue with the Apple TV, not the TV set. does that make sense?

sure it does, i run into this all the time with time warner or comcast set top boxes. technically, your 4:3 tv show is still being ouput at 720p (at least it is upconverted to that format) the same as the movies... unless your box has the option of outputting "native" in which case it does exactly as you describe. if you have an LCD, you are immune from "burn in" in the traditional sense of CRTs and plasmas. you can get a ghosting effect or a temporary burn in that is not permanent, but nothing to worry about. if you have plasma, then yes, you do have to worry about permanent burn, even though newer models have improved over some earlier models.

i can value the cable boxes ability to adjust aspect, and often times i take advantage of it (i am an automation systems programmer for control systems). but in the systems that i program, i have the luxury of communicating with the HD display and setting them to the correct aspect ratios and the end user does not have to think about this. i just note that in instances where consumers do not have the luxury of full automated control, they will more often than not at some point "mess up" the aspect ratios where they are in some twilight zone weird in-between mode. both approaches have their merits. but lets talk about DVD players... they don't have aspect ratio controls, even the progressive players that output 480p... just an aspect ration setup in the settings menu, same with XBOX360 and PS3? (not sure).

some day, this will all be a non-issue once everything has transitioned over to 16:9. on split decisions like this, it is pretty predictable that apple would take the road with less complexity. maybe we will see a more full featured remote as an option in the future for those that want to transcend above the front row experience?

It makes perfect sense. I have the same problem in that my ipod with output 16:9 for the tv shows, but my apple tv will not. In order to see my purchases in wide screen, I'm having to use my ipod with dock instead of the apple tv.
Kind of defeats the purpose of having it.

if the shows are meant to be seen in 4:3 then why change it to 16:9?

We have all gotten used to watching all shows in 16:9, but surely many of them are strecthed and unreal... I actually kind of appreciate Apple for letting me know which aspect ratio i'm supposed to be watching the shows in.

I guess for people with burn-in issues it can be a problem, but otherwise why worry?

I don't know what my ipod is doing that the apple tv isn't, but the shows don't look stretched at all.