DTV on standard 4:3 TVs and CRT damage

[dr.ido]

While it's certainly possible I imagine it would take so long before the difference in wear between the black bars and the active screen area became visible that it isn't a practical concern for standard CRT sets. I've never seen it (though I've seen many other forms of screen burn).

I do see it often on old plasmas and used to see it on CRT rear projections sets before I stopped taking them.

As for not being able to zoom a program to full screen - This was often caused by channels broadcasting everything as 16:9 regardless of the actual aspect ratio the program is in. The well behaved channels would set the aspect ratio correctly on a program by program basis and by cable box and TV would adjust accordingly. In the end the well behaved channels were in the minority so I left everything on the 14:9 compromise setting when I got sick of messing with all the time. Now they're cropping some old 4:3 shows so they are full screen 16:9.