[Phototone]

"Some" upconverting DVD players allow you to display 4:3 material (upconverted) in 1080i, or 1080p without stretching. There is a setting in a menu for this. Also some BluRay players can do the same. You would find the setting in the "picture" menu of the machine. My Sony BluRay player was factory set to "fill" a 16:9 screen with picture regardless of the original aspect ratio of the disc, however a simple menu selection brought the player into compliance, and now it plays 4:3 material on my wide-screen TV correctly, all over HDMI, with black pillar box effect. Both my much older Oppo upconverting DVD player, and my almost new Sony BluRay player had to be set to do this, otherwise they stretch all.

The older Sony CRT style 4:3 HD TV's have a menu selection to set for full screen, or Letterboxed widescreen from 16:9 ratio recordings. These older Sony sets only have Component inputs for HD.