flat screen TVs that are not HD? I need help getting a new TV...

[Beastcub]

my brother convinced my mom to get HD tvs and HD cable...and she hates it. and she hates how non HD channels (which is 80% of our stuff) do not fill up the whole screen. so she wants a flat tv (because old TVs are like old computer monitors in that they are effing heavy and clunky and huge, and i am not sure they even make new ones anymore) with normal cable and have it fill up the whole TV and not have empty space on either side of the image. and she is DRIVING ME NUTS! she wants me to find out right now (when she gets like this all hell will break loose) and i have no idea what TVs are what, and trying to find out via google is hurting my brain T_T

also can one have a DVR with non HD cable? i am REALLY attached to having a DVR now ;_;

i mean i could care less that there is empty space on the TV, all i care is it was super easy to get up on the shelf VS the hugeass thing we had before, and we have a DVR now which i love. i want to just leave it alone >_< but when she gets like this it's a "if mom is not happy no one is happy" situation

 

[AshleyAshes]

Uhh... They USED to make 4:3 SDTV LCD TVs but I dunno if they still do. If so, they're probably so obscure they'd cost you as much as an HDTV.

The TV should have options for your SDTV channels to either stretch or zoom in rather than use pillar boxes on 4:3 channels.

And yeah, most DVRs support standard def connections too. o.o

 

[Runefox]

There are no such thing as "non-HD" flat-panel TV's, at least not at the moment that I know of. If you mean non-widescreen, then good luck with that.

If the program isn't filling the whole screen, there's usually "zoom" modes to either stretch or zoom into the picture so that it actually does fill the entire screen. There isn't any other real way to do it since the actual dimensions aren't the same. I prefer the "zoom" modes, myself; There's usually nothing lost in the upper and lower regions of the screen that are lost this way, and it's a lot more viewable than the alternative (stretching it or dealing with borders). Check your TV's instruction manual to find out how to do it - There's usually an "ASPECT" button on the remote control to control it.

 

[ToeClaws]

Aye - the others pretty much covered it - all the flat panel TVs are HD capable to some degree. As Rune said, the set should have some settings that can be tweaked to make things fill the screen better. Over the next 3 to 5 years, most channels will switch to broadcasting in 16:10 instead of 4:3, so even if you could get a 4:3 flat screen, it'd only be a few years before the programs would all only fill the centre of the screen anyway.

Television is basically in a major transitory state right now. The last major such change was when it went from black and white to colour. Though colour TV was invented in 1953, it wasn't until the 70's that most homes had colour TV. Likewise, the transition to HD and 16:10 images will take time, but it will be the norm soon enough.

 

[hitokage]

ToeClaws:
The aspect ratio for widescreen TV is 16:9 (about 1.78:1) and not 16:10 (1.6:1). Computer monitors are the source of confusion as they are being sold in both 16:10 and 16:9. Using 16:10 really wasn't necessary, and is even further from the normal ratios used in movie theatres - typically 1.85:1 and 2.35/2.38:1 (although 1.66:1 is sometimes used overseas).