I might be the only person on the planet running a WDTV Live on a 4:3 CRT television but there you go
Anyway, there is a bug in the current firmware that no matter whether you choose Widescreen or Normal, any widescreen video plays on the television in a filled or zoomed mode. ie. not in letterbox format.
Hope they fix that in the next release (along with the Windows 7 networking issues)
LCD technology is still not up to par…I have yet to see any LCD beat a CRT in terms of color accuracy, gamuts and other factors. Using a professional series CRT monitor and very happy with the results of the WDLive - I wasn’t with the initial firmware that came with it but when I updated all the image quality problems I was having vanished.
I haven’t tried the latest beta firmware, and ahve not noticed any problems with 4:3 and 16:9…
I still notice that WD is very deficient when dealing with support or fixing issues though, it’s a shame…
Hey, you’re not alone. I bought the WDTV specifically because of its composite output. I’ve connected it to a 29 inch CRT and set the aspect ration to Normal (4:3).
I don’t seem to have the issue you’re facing. The videos I’m playing appear in wide format on the screen. However I have noticed that the text in the WDTV menus appear fuzzy. I see this only for the text in the menus. Other text like subtitles appear fine.
I’m using the WDTV Live HD with the original firmware 1.01.00.