How do I make people look normal on wide screen TV?

Almost all the new TV's sold today are wide, but all the images on them are stretched wide and look awful. Is there a way to fix this?

On my TV, there's a button on the remote to switch from wide screen to regular view, to zoom1 and zoom2, you might check your remote or press the 'set up/menu' button to see if you have something similar.

The real solution for me though was getting an HDMI cable.

Before, mine was hooked up with a componet (group of cables with different colored plugs). When I switched to an HDMI cable, I *guess* different data is relayed to the TV, because it began automatically adjusting the picture from normal to wide screen on it's own, keeping things in perspective. I'm much happier with the TV now.

The automatic adjusting works when I have the zoom on the 'full' setting, I can still stretch the screen with the other settings.

The HDMI cable I got was really cheap too, through amazon. Take a look at:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb...

and see what you find.

My set up is through a cable box and I have high def through that.

Ours also looks better now---and it has something to do with hi-def---
We didn't do anything we know of--except when we got a new remote, there must have been something with the set-up that worked!

My TV's widescreen options include 4:3, 14:9, Zoom, Wide and Smart. If the programme you're watching was filmed and broadcast in 4:3 (old-style nearly square picture) then you need to get your TV to show it in the same aspect ratio. If it's broadcast in a 4:3 frame but with some letterboxing, then 14:9 or Zoom will expand the picture but maintain the aspect ratio. Wide is for programmes broadcast in widescreen, and Smart is best forgotten about ;)
Having said that, my TV auto-selects based on the programme being shown, getting the information from the digital stream. Occasionally the broadcaster gets it wrong so I have to override it! An external source connected via an HDMI or SCART cable can also toggle the display between 4:3 and Widescreen settings.