Widescreen Picture on Widescreeen TV

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HossNZ

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#39553 16-Aug-2009 16:41

I have a 42" Samsung Plasma and a Pioneer DV 400V DVD player, now why when playback dvd's are they still in letterbox format with the black bars above and below the picture? shouldnt it just fill the whole screen, I have mucked around with settings but cant work it out, is this just the norm or am I missing something, any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

xpd

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#247244 16-Aug-2009 16:45

No, thats still correct aspect. I cant remember exact reasoning why but tis to do with the aspect ratios used....... lets see if I can find "tech" explanation... heres a breakdown.

it depends on the screen aspect ratio the DVD was formatted in, 1.85 fills a widescreen TV, 2.35:1 has bars, and the reason for using 2.35:1 is to keep the original ratio of the film intact, i am pretty sure...

here are the common DVD screen formats explained:

1.85:1 Enhanced for Widescreen (Anamorphic) DVDs

These DVDs are the correct aspect ratio to fill a widescreen TV. You will need to set the TV to it's "horizontal only stretch mode" to properly see this type of movie. There should be no black bars. If you use the vertical and horizontal stretch mode by mistake, everyone will be tall and skinny.

1.85:1 "Standard" DVDs (Not Enhanced for Widescreen)

These DVDs are the correct aspect ratio to fill a widescreen TV. You will need to set the TV to it's "horizontal and vertical stretch mode" to properly see this type of movie. There should be no black bars.

2.35:1 Enhanced for Widescreen (Anamorphic) DVDs:

These DVDs have an aspect ratio that is much wider than it is tall, so it will not fill a widescreen TV. You will need to set the TV to it's "horizontal only stretch mode" to properly see this type of movie. There will be black bars above and below the movie. If you use the vertical and horizontal stretch mode by mistake, everyone will be tall and skinny.

2.35:1 "Standard" DVDs (Not Enhanced for Widescreen):

These DVDs have an aspect ratio that is much wider than it is high, so it will not fill a widescreen TV. You will need to set the TV to it's "horizontal and vertical stretch mode" to properly see this type of movie. There will be black bars above and below the movie. If you absolutely cannot stand the black bars, you can use the DVD player's zoom mode to zoom in on the picture and eliminate the black bars, however, you will now miss the "outermost" parts of the movie and you will not be seeing what the director intended.

1.33:1 DVDs

These DVDs are the correct aspect ratio to fill a 4:3 TV. You will either see bars on the sides, or you can use one of the stretch modes like you do for any standard definition signal.

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HossNZ

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#247248 16-Aug-2009 17:01

Thanks for that, not my settings just the format of the dvds, cheers.

shermanp

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#247289 16-Aug-2009 18:22

Just a bit of a correction to the above..

1.85:1 is WIDER than a standard widescreen television, and so will be the same sort of situation as 2.35:1 - just not as "severe".

Widescreen televisions are usually 16:9, which is the same as 1.78:1 (near enough anyway - its actually 1.77 recurring). It's easy enough to caculate the aspect ratio of your TV - just devide the horizontal resolution by the vertical resolution, Most modern TV's have a resolution of 1366x768 or 1920x1080, so quickly doing the math we get

1366/768 = 1.77777777...
1920/1080 = 1.77777777...

Basically you'll have to play with your TV's stretch or zoom options till you get a picture that does not look squashed or stretched, if it's not doing so already.

BTW, DVD's generally have the aspect ratio on the back of the case, and should give you an idea as to how it should look on your TV.

sbiddle

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#247298 16-Aug-2009 18:35

Certainly from my experience virtually all Blu Ray discs are 2.35:1 which is the original cinema aspect ratio. It seems now that many DVD's are now following suit and instead of being converted to 1.85:1 are being left in 2.35:1 for the transfer.

You really have the choice of zooming this in (and missing the left and right sides of the picture) or just watching it in the true aspect radio which gives you borders.

I did read somewhere earlier this year somebody had released the world's first 2.35:1 TV.

old3eyes

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#247312 16-Aug-2009 19:11

sbiddle: Certainly from my experience virtually all Blu Ray discs are 2.35:1 which is the original cinema aspect ratio. It seems now that many DVD's are now following suit and instead of being converted to 1.85:1 are being left in 2.35:1 for the transfer.

You really have the choice of zooming this in (and missing the left and right sides of the picture) or just watching it in the true aspect radio which gives you borders.

I did read somewhere earlier this year somebody had released the world's first 2.35:1 TV.

Unfortunately TV networks in NZ seemed to have adopted "Zoom-O-Vision when it comes to 2.35:1 movies. One exception was last nites Top Gun but I guess that was because it was in SD.

Yes Philips have released a 2.35:1 TV or 21:9 TV

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/07/31/review_hd_tv_philips_cinema_21_9_56pfl9954h/

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#255558 14-Sep-2009 11:43

interesting, I am having the same issues, I will check my DVD's at home for the Aspect ration, if they are all 2.35:1 would over 50% of the 1.78:1 screen be blank bars?

Jaxson

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#255563 14-Sep-2009 12:21

Hi HossNZ,

Roughly speaking, if you have a 1.85:1 movie, it will fill all your widescreen TV
If you have a 2.35:1 movie, it is wider than your TV, so you will get black bars top and bottom.

Some people just can't handle having empty space on their new expensive TV.
It's a laugh as they'll spend heaps on high quality cables and then distort the picture by zooming it to fill the screen.

The end result is not as dramatic these days as it was on the older 'square' 4:3 shaped TV's.
(In that case the black bars were huge).
Not all films are shot that wide so not all films are 2.35:1

Don't worry it's not your TV or your set up, it's just the movie is filmed wider than your wide screen TV.

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lchiu7

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#255644 14-Sep-2009 16:26

sbiddle: Certainly from my experience virtually all Blu Ray discs are 2.35:1 which is the original cinema aspect ratio. It seems now that many DVD's are now following suit and instead of being converted to 1.85:1 are being left in 2.35:1 for the transfer.

You really have the choice of zooming this in (and missing the left and right sides of the picture) or just watching it in the true aspect radio which gives you borders.

I did read somewhere earlier this year somebody had released the world's first 2.35:1 TV.

Actually it can be more complicated than that since a DP can shoot in 35mm spherical and yet the movie comes out in 2.25:1. Check out this link for more info

Spherical Versus Scope

One advantage some directors like about Super35 is that they can open up the matte so to speak for DVD or BR distribution and fill the entire 16:9 screen and add more data rather than crop it. If course it means the Director has to compose his movie for both formats - I guess not so easy?

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richms

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#255984 16-Sep-2009 00:57

End up with the same problem that current tv shows that are made 4:3 safe have - when shown in 16:9 the sides are just full of empty space - look at the complete abortion that is tvnz 7's overnight service. No excuse there since its only on digital so the stb can letterbox it for squarescreen. See it with the news as well with massive margins on the titles, and in shows where they never have the characters looking natural.

Admitidly it will be less of an issue for filming 2.35 safe in a 1.77 frame since the tops and bottoms are usually just extra anyway, but really its still a compromise.

Richard rich.ms

dickytim

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#255993 16-Sep-2009 07:00

I found that my DVD player had been set to 4:3 so the picture is much better, also setting to always output 1080i seemed to help, now 16:9 movies fill the screen and 2.35:1 only have small black parts above and below. I don't feel ripped off when I get less picture on my 32in than I used to with my 21in :)

bazzer

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#256081 16-Sep-2009 12:17

You didn't notice that everyone looked short and fat?

xpd

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#256085 16-Sep-2009 12:30

Maybe he was watching Charlie and the Choclate factory's Oopa Loompas ?

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Jaxson

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#256087 16-Sep-2009 12:33

I think there's been a bit of unconscious training going on for a while. I've run into this a bit lately.

Originally analogue TV was broadcast in 4:3 ratio and viewed on 4:3 TV's
Then people switched to widescreen TVs but still received the same 4:3 ratio broadcasts.
This meant a lot of people have got used to 4:3 broadcasts being squashed down/stretched out to fill the widescreen TV. (Not many people set there widescreen TV's to 4:3 and put up with black bars on the side to keep the proper aspect ratio).

Now that freeview is broadcast in widescreen, it does appear stretched up/people are tall and skinny/long in the face if you're used to squashed 4:3 display on a widescreen TV.

I 'fixed' this at the mother in laws a week ago, so their sky picture filled the whole screen, then had to 'break' it again so that black bars were shown on the top and bottom of the widescreen picture, and everyone looked fat and short.