No, you're missing the point.

If your TV is getting a full 16:9 picture, it can't stretch the 16:9 picture wider than 16:9. At least, my TV doesn't do that.

The only way the TV will stretch for me, is if I'm watching a 4:3 source picture.

Since my HD-Tivo is running in 1080i and doing the upconverting for me, I have no stretch control over the local stations who broadcast 4:3 content on their 16:9 channels. Only a channel broadcasting in 4:3 can be stretched by the Tivo.

In other words, there is no way for me to get rid of the black bars when a local station is broadcasting 4:3 content on a 16:9 channel. So if I watch those channels, I get burn-in.

I agree that 4:3 stretched to 16:9 looks ugly. A better solution would be for them to do the following on their 16:9 station:

- Gray bars instead of black.
- Slightly move the positions of those bars periodically (or slowly over time) so that the sharp edge doesn't get burned in.

My TV does exactly that, when fed a 4:3 image from the S-video inputs. If only I could make the TV do that for 16:9 stations with black bars I'd be all set, but I can't.