I'm a long-time DirecTV customer with all analog equipment: TVs, receivers, dish. I'm planning a switch to HDTV and want to determine what features to look for in a new TV to make it compatible with DirecTV service.
I'm particularly concerned about picture distortion due to varying aspect ratios. I visited friends' homes who have cable TV (not DirecTV), and noted that several channels are stretched or compressed, horizontally or vertically, because the TV apparently cannot handle the aspect ratio of the incoming signal appropriately.
So there are two questions. First, are there channels on DirecTV HDTV that can reliably be displayed in HD on any TV, and other channels that will need to have the aspect ratio corrected by the TV?
Second, are there capabilities to solve this problem within an HDTV? If so, what should I look for when purchasing a new TV?
When I say "reliably displayed", I mean that the image on the screen does not stretch people horizontally so they all look like 400-pound NFL linemen, nor does it compress people horizontally so they all look like 60-pound anorexic fashion models. If the TV displays the picture using only part of the screen, but with correctly proportioned people, that is acceptable. For example, many channels display movies in "letterbox" format with my current analog service, and that is acceptable.
A related question: do the answers to the above questions differ for 1080p and 720p HDTV devices?
Thanks.