Aspect Ratio

I do what you do. I can't stand to see the picture stretched out either.

I wouldn't say that only younger viewers don't like the bars. My parents keep the entire screen filled with the picture. I've told them a million times that it's not supposed to look like that but they don't care. It drives me crazy!

I adjust it to 4:3 for old shows. I don't understand why anybody wants to watch a distorted picture. We're still seeing all of the picture of these classics in 4:3. Plus, we're seeing it larger than ever even if it only fills 75% of your screen. I don't even know why people call the dark edges "black bars". Nothing is being blacked out, there's just nothing to see outside the frame! LOL!

Like others have said, I leave it at 4:3 too. It's pretty much the opposite of the old days, when people had 4:3 TVs and most widescreen movies were presented with the edges chopped off. Seasons three and four of Bewitched are now on Roku in HD in 16:9, but they appear to be brand new scans from the 35mm. They show more on the left and right, but cut off image from the the top and bottom.

Sometimes the way they show old 4:3 tv shows is stretched, and sometimes it's cropped. Adjusting the setting to 4:3 sometimes works, but sometimes causes distortion--people look short and squatty, or too tall and thin. The best way to tell if the picture is distorted is to wait for a straight-on shot of something you know is perfectly round, like a wheel or a clock face, and pause the picture to see if it looks round or elliptical. If nothing like a wheel or clock is available, I've used the irises of people's eyes, or shirt buttons.