Wide Screen (16:9) TV Question

[Sesoku]

I want the next TV I purchase to be a wide screen model, mostly for watching wide screen format movies, but also because I think the picture just looks cooler. However, what happens when you watch regular broadcast or cable TV with a widescreen TV? Are there black bars on the sides of the picture? Does it matter what brand you get or what TV show you are watching?

 

[Nosamk]

I have a Panasonic widescreen and believe most of the models I looked at when purchasing mine all had the same options.

You can choose bewteen seeing the 'normal' 4:3 program with the black bars on the sides, you can stretch the picture to fill the bars, or you can zoom the picture and crop off the information at the top and bottom of the screen.

 

[Sesoku]

Thanks, I also just learned that by 2006 all TV broadcasts will be in HDTV so they will be formatted in widescreen, and a high percentage of them are already available in HDTV so this isn't as big of a deal as I thought.