Gray bar on bottom of picture when playing dvd

Hello, I will need a picture of the screen and a model number to be sure, but it sounds like it has a bad screen.....tks...Terry

It sounds like you might have shorted out the display panel driver board / boards.
These boards are located at the bottom of the screen and are prone to liquid damage.
Just before this happened, did you happen to spill something on the screen or clean the screen using a spray bottle cleaner?
The only fix I know of is to replace the whole panel but it is usually just as cheap to buy a new TV.

You need to change the region code in the user menu under dvd settings.

The screen is ok Your T-Con board quit. You can get a new one from here: TV Parts Universal TV Stands DLP Chips ShopJimmy

The grey bars signal that the source image is originally in 4:3 format - if you are using a box of some kind get in its menu and change the format from there to 16:9. The black bars appear when a 16:9 image is sent to a 4:3 format in Letterbox mode - leave it like that or the Pan and Scan mode will chop the sides.

Yes. There are options. Strech, wide, full, zoom, and gray bar are common options. Some times when aa HD channel is not broadcasting in HD you will also get a narrow picture.

I have same problem with a 7 month old Toshiba 26LV610U LCD TV/DVD combo.

1) The 4:3 / 16:9 option only optimises playback for that particular type of TV. The 4:3 setting also allows you to set the output between:

• 4:3 PS - expands the picture vertically and horizontally which gets rid of the black bars, but you also lose the left and right edges of the picture.
• 4:3 LB - Letterbox format, displays the full picture from the disc, with black bars top and bottom.

The PS option loses the bars on 16:9 widescreen DVDs, but may still leave bars on true cinema widescreen DVDs, which are 21.7:9
This is normal.

• 16:9 - Optimises the picture for a widescreen TV. Again True cinema widescreen DVDs will still have black bars.

2) All of the external inputs will show "No signal" until there is actually a signal playing into them.
EG to copy VHS to DVD, you will need to select the relevant scart or phono input, and press play before the recorder will register a signal and allow recording.
Some bought VHS videos have copy protection, and may cause problems when copying to DVD.

3) Greenish playback maybe caused by colour setting on TV being too high. Also check Hue or Tint settings on the TV, if it has them.

4) For some reason, in their infinite wisdom, Philips omitted the Video Plus facility from this model.

Unfortunately, a cinema screen is even wider than a widescreen TV. Because of this (in order to keep the original aspect ratio), even with a widescreen TV you still end up with the black bars top and bottom.

Check the aspect ratio of the DVD (Should be printed on the back of the case somewhere).

Unless it says 1.85:1 or 16:9 Anamorphic, you will get the black bars. (Many films on DVD are 2.35:1 or even wider!)

Have you got any different picture modes on your TV. I've got a Toshiba and it has something called 'cinema mode' which does eliminate the bars. Unfortunately it does it by zooming in on the picture slightly, so you loose a bit off the side of the picture and the image does get a little grainier.

Hope this helps.

Matt

Most if not all DVD's are 16 by 9 even in 4.3 mode you are going to have those bars on this TV. Some television have a zoom feature to get rid of that but not this one.