Screen split with black bar through center, top of picture shows in bottom

Tcon board possibly

CHANGING THE SCREEN ASPECT RATIO: ( From Manual )
The TV can display images in four different modes: Wide, Zoom, Panoramic, and Normal. Each mode displays the picture differently. To change the screen aspect ratio:
1. Press the MENU button on the remote.
2. Use the Arrow buttons to highlight the Wide icon. Press OK.
3. Use the Arrow buttons to highlight your desired screen mode and press OK:
• Normal preserves the content's original aspect ratio. Since the 4:3 aspect ratio is not large enough to fill the TV's screen, black bars are added to the left and right of the display image.
• Wide stretches a 4:3 aspect ratio picture to the edges of the screen. Since the picture is being stretched, the display image may appear distorted. If the program is already formatted for widescreen viewing (1.85:1 or 2.35:1), then black bars will appear on the top and bottom of the display image.
• Zoom expands images with black bars to fit the screen.
• Panoramic expands the display image to fill the screen.
images may appear wider than intended.
If you are watching widescreen (1.85:1 or 2.35:1) content, black bars will still appear on the top and bottom of the display image. This option is only available when the TV is displaying a 480i/480p source.

Your TV remote control (not the cable box remote control) would have to have a button that would allow the changing of the TV screen sizes. My Sony TV control has a button called, ' wide', and when pressed will change my screen to either, full, wide zoom, and zoom. Only zoom gets rid of the black bars on my TV. If no button, than the screen size will be determined by the broadcaster.

Hi Anthony,

You're describing what is called letterbox and pillerbox. Letterboxing is when there are two horizontal bars - one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen with a wide picture between. Pillerbox is when there are two vertical bars - one on the left edge and one on the right edge of the screen with a tall picture between.

The settings on your TV (and on your cable box, satellite box, DVD player, etc.) tell the TV how to display a picture that will not fill the screen completely. If the program source (an older video-taped TV show, non-widescreen version DVD, etc) was not originally "shot" or saved in widescreen format, the TV offers you a choice on how to display the image. They ask if they should stretch or zoom to fill the screen (and you have to deal with the skinny / tall images or lost portions of the picture); or maintain the aspect ratio (not stretching or zooming) by leaving a part of the screen blank (grey or black) by inserting bars left and right or top and bottom of the screen.

Start out by telling the devices that send pictures in a format that matches you TV's screen ratio. I am assuming you've got a wide screen HDTV which would mean it should be set to "16 x 9" (a.k.a. 16:9) ratio display. If you have it set for 4 x 3 (a.k.a. 4:3) you should change it. Look for a setting on your TV that asks about stretching, zooming, etc. as this will be an issue when receiving picture from an off air antenna on your house when a TV station is airing an older, non-wide screen format TV show or movie.

TV signals provided by Cable TV or Satellite provider must be HDTV type signals. If you have the standard TV service (non-HD) no picture sent by them will ever fill the screen. This is because Standard Definition TV (SDTV) is not capable of those types of signals. You will have to bump up your subscription to HDTV service to get full screen pictures.

I hope this helps!

either you have the video setting of the television set to wide screen or you are purchasing "WIDE SCREEN" format dvds instead of "FULL SCREEN" format dvds

Hello
You can set the picture size by remote control itself.

You can vide 480i format programmes in three picture sizes. 4:3, 16:9, and ZOOM
You can change the picture size by pressing the PICTURE SIZE button on the remote control.
4:3 Picutre size
To fill the screen, the top and bottom edges are extedted more widely, although the center of the picture remains near the former ratio.
If receiving a 4:3 programme, the image size is displayed in its originally formatted proportion.
16:9 picure size
This image displays the size of standard 16:9 with black bars at the top and bottom.
If receiving a 4:3 programme, the image is displayed with black bars at the top and bottom and stretched wider.

NOTE: If a fixed bar remains on the screen for a long period of time, the image can become parmanantly engrained in the screen and cause subtle but permanent ghost images. Never leave your TV for long periods of time while it is displaying these images.

Zoom picture size [for 16:9 formats]
The entire picture is uniformly enlarged --it is stretched the same amount both wider and taller (retains its original proportion). The right and left edges of the picture may be hidden.
OK.

this is normal and this feature is for wide screen programs! normal shows and games will lose part of the top of the screen sides and bottem because it zooms in on whats in the middle of screen! hope this helps

all sustain parts in set need replacement.....costly!

Your model has a maximum resolution of 720p. What you might want to do is make sure that both your cable/sat box and game stations are outputting at no more than 720 resolution. It's easy to assume that all HDTVs may accept a higher signal, and while they might, some of the scene changes or handshakes may make that operation cause the symptoms you describe.

For Models: CC4352, CC4362, CC4393. Your camcorder has a wide format recording mode that lets you make recordings compatible with the 16x9 format. When 16x9 is activated, the camcorder records black bars at the top and bottom of the picture to produce the wide-screen (movie) effect. This is also known as "letterbox" recording. Do not use this mode unless you have a compatible 16x9 TV. When played on a regular TV, black bars appear on the screen. If the 16x9 feature is activated on your camcorder and you want to turn it off, press REC/PAUSE to pause recording, and repeatedly press DIGITAL EFFECTS until no digital effects display appears.