Pan and Scan?

[RIDGMONT]

I have a Panasonic DVD player and a 21" non-widescreen TV, Widescreen DVDs normally fill only the centre of the screen as you may expect. If the DVD is set to widescreen the full screen is filled but with substabtial distortion.

I would have thought that the Pan & Scan feature that the DVD has would fill the screen better but the picure is not changed from the letterbox view.

Does Pan & Scan do anything?

I trust that I would be better to just change the TV for a widescreen version! - are there any suggestions to a Widescreen TV that is not to thick (front to back) but at a reasonably price?

[blair]

the pan & scan feature relies on the disc being coded with the 'centre of interest' which the player will zoom into and follow as the action moves around the director's original frame.
I have a widscreen tv so my player is set to 16:9, but from memeory not many DVDs are coded for pan & scan. One that is coded is the original issue of Lock, Stock 2 Smoking Barrels - but the COI is pretty much glued to the middle of the original frame. If you want to watch this film without black bars you're better off playing the other side which is proper 4:3