I watched Creepshow on a Pioneer LD-V2200 using the old red/yellow/white a/v cables. The aspect ratio of the film was 16:9 and my LD player was sending out a 4:3 signal, so I was looking at a widescreen picture in a 4:3 box in the middle of my widescreen TV, so I zoomed it in so that the picture filled the screen and couldn't see any black.

The picture quality looked fine from where I was sitting (about 5 feet away from my 32" LCD), but when I got about 2 feet away from the screen, it looked pretty poor. I'm guessing it's just because I zoomed in.

Is there any way to get my LD player (or any of them) to transmit a widescreen signal? Or do they all do that? I notice my PS2 puts out a 4:3 signal, as well as a VHS player I used, and my 360 and Blu Ray player transmit a widescreen signal. Is there any way to get all my players to transmit in widescreen? I thought the red/green/blue cables on a PS2 were supposed to make the PS2 transmit in 16:9, but no matter what setting I do, it always sends a 4:3 picture.

I did some research and it sounds like I need anamorphic discs which are almost non existent. Are you guys all watching your discs on widescreen sets and just leaving the picture how it is, or zooming it in, or just watching on 4:3 sets?

Playing your first LD is always an experience. The thing I always remember was how noisy the player seemed spinning up the disc compared to say a DVD player but I barely notice these days.

I collect mainly music laserdiscs and very few (if any) were widescreen so for me it is either watching them on a CRT non zoomed or watch on LCD zoomed usually.
I'm using a scaler as well so that is improving the picture quality before it goes to the TV.

I use a 4:3 HD-ready CRT.

Though I have taken a player over to my friends' place and hooked it up to their 50" plasma with varying results.

If you zoom the picture you're going to lose resolution and/or enhance the flaws in the picture. There's no way around that.

You get better results with well-mastered LDs played on a quality player, but you're still going to lose resolution no matter what if you zoom in.

Might help if you calibrate the picture better.

Try this . . .

Watching Laserdiscs in the Digital Age

I no longer have my PS2, but is there not an option for 16:9 (for anamorphic movies and the few games that support it) in the same menu you use to switch between RGB and YPbPr?

As for LaserDisc, First, as the mindspring link will tell you, get a better player. The LD-V2200 is good, in that it doesn't try for any digital enhancements, but the picture is soft and noisy compared to later players (not to mention the LD-V2200 doesn't play digital tracks). I don't know how much you're willing to spend, but I'd recommend checking out the list of players fellow LDDB member rixrex is selling.
Second, you'd probably get better results from zooming 4:3 LBX to 16:9 if you used a external device for it (Personally, I'd recommend the DVDO series).
And also, the mindspring link doesn't mention this but it would also help to get a better comb filter, since most scalers, TVs and LD players have poor ones. I'd recommend using aRCA DRC8335, but there are many other good ones.

there were only about 10 anamorphic lasediscs ever made, there were called squeeze Ld's and they fetch good money on ebay sorry but widescreen is not something you can turn on or off lol

I just read the article. Wow. It's pretty awesome to know that there are people who are almost as big of nerds as I am when it comes to film. I'm really fascinated by the old analog signals that nobody gives a crap about anymore. I feel like VHS was for people who didn't care about film (since most tapes were pan and scan), whereas LD was for the film buffs. I also really like the packaging for the LDs and I always thought DVD and BD packaging felt cheap. Don't get me wrong, I still buy DVDs because they're cheap and I buy BD for the quality, but I still want the classics on the old formats.

With that being said it seems like its too expensive to get LD to look just a few notches below DVD, but I do want a more expensive player and an analog TV (thank God they're cheap nowadays)

you can get good deals on good players, i almost did a few hours ago lol

You can get the pioneer 2400 cheap as heck all day long. I think that is at least.

If you want to get the best picture from LD I recommend getting a good video scaler. I have my Elite DVL-90 hooked up via s-video (gives a better picture than composite) to a DVDO Edge outputting 16:9 at 24hz. My displays are a Sharp 60" LCD and a Optima HD-33 1080P projector on a 92" screen. I find my picture very watchable on both but it looks better on the LCD because the screen is much smaller.

Your Edge transmits in 16:9? How does that work? If 99% of LDs are really 4:3 pictures with the original aspect ratio inside that 4:3 box, isn't your Edge just zooming in on the picture?

My LCD TV has a zoom feature to take care of that, but it just looks like garbage, zoomed in.

And are there any players in which. When you fast forward/rewind, the picture doesn't look like its quickly moving up or down a physical film strip? I was under the impression it'd look the way DVD/BD does, only smooth instead of choppy.

You'll need a player with what's called "Digital Frame Memory" or "Digital Field Memory."

If you're playing a CAV (standard play) recorded disc, you shouldn't run into the problem you describe, but CLV (extended play) recorded discs need DFM to freeze frame and to scan cleanly.

Most of the mid-to-high end Pioneer players have this. Like the CLD-D604/5/6, CLD-D704, and pretty much all the Elite series (and the DVD/LD combination players.)

The Panasonic LX-1000u and LX-900u also have this feature.

Yes, it is just zoomed, but zooming is just scaling. Most TVs have very poor scalers, so a 4:3 LBX to 16:9 zoom would look better if you used a better scaler (like the Edge, for example).
Also, this is just a side comment, but don't use the S-Video of any player, not even the HLDs.

Just get some thick cables. They work the best. The thicker and shorter the better. I use 3 feet cables and even then I feel that is to long. I do have nice cables though.

Don't try to get your ld picture to look like a dvd because you don't want your ld viewing experience to be the "equivalent" of watching a dvd. Enjoy the uniqueness of ld. Remove all your sharpness from your tvs menue. Lower the color control until the fleshtones are slightly below normal. Remember the fact that your dealing with an older model also factors into this. Lower the contrast as well to an acceptable level.
If you can, watch a ws or letterbox film just the it presents itself on the screen. The concept of zooming has been generated only to fill the hunger for "more size".

No where that I'm aware of did Pioneer ever suggest zooming, and the ablity was there. Nor do discs instruct you to do that. You will actually have a clearer picture especially on older models if you leave it alone. Some of the dvd/ld combo units actually have an aspect ratio adjustment tab if you look deep into it's menu. I don't recommend those units though because there's too much gadgetry to break down. I'm speaking through experience. Get a 500 series as an upgrade. You can find them cheap on ebay.