HDTV picture size on standard 4:3 TV

[Chip Chester]

If you're watching your cable feed on a CRT NTSC TV, with no box and no DTV tuner, then none of the HDTV stuff applies. That goes for screen formatting as well. It's very likely that the screen format is chosen at the device that converts the HDTV signal into the standard-def signal you see on your set. The two basic choices in that scenario are center cut and letterbox. Unless your set will interpret (either thru flags or thru image processing) and zoom in on a letterbox image, or you have a menu item allowing it to be configured manually, you're stuck with what they send you. And what they send you may be influenced by whose signal it is -- the originating station may have the clout to require letterboxing. I know it's a time-consuming pain to configure a show to "work" in center cut, when it would be much better presented as a wide-screen image -- either natively on a 16x9 display, or artificially as a letterbox image.

DVD players are often smart enough to figure out what they're plugged into, display-wise. Or, they can be manually configured. Cable's not so smart, without a box.

I'm surprised you can still view "analog" cable.

Maybe your current display will outlive its warranty, too. It could happen!

Chip