Viewing a widescreen DVD on my Panasonic HDTV Plasma

[The ORB]

Hello, first post on these forums and I am pretty new to HT.

I have a question I have just purchased an HT setup, Panny TH42PX50 HDTV plasma, Yamaha RXV1500 receiver, Yamaha S550 DVD player and Axiom speakers (pair M22ti bookshelfs, pair QS4 surrounds, CP150 center and an EP175 Sub). and whilst setting it up decided to watch the Gladiator Widescreen edition DVD. The problem is that the movie plays with the black bars above and below the picture. I tried changing the aspect ratio on the TV, but couldn't fill the screen. I also tried to find an suitable options in the DVD player menus but couldn't. I, perhaps incorrectly, assumed that a widescreen DVD would correctly fill a widescreen TV. Is this just a wrong assumption on my part or this there an adjustment to the DVD player or TV that I can make to correct this?
Any help or advice for this bumbling HT newbie would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Oliver.

[Spiffyfast]

There are different widescreen version other than 16:9 that your TV probably is. Alot of epic type movies are wider, star wars, lord of the rings, etc

[Spiffyfast]

you can probably zoom in your tv, but then youll be cutting off the sides which negates the whole point og having a widescreen tv

[Duffinator]

Your TV is a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Many action movies are filmed in 2.35:1 and you will see the black bars while many animated, comedy, and dramas are filmed in 1.85:1 and with overscan they fill the screen entirely. There are several other aspect ratios but these are the two most common. Your TV is 1.78:1 because the HDTV spec is 1.78:1 so all true HDTV content will fill your screen. Like previously mentioned you might be able to stretch your image to fill your screen buy why bother. View the movie the way the director intended it and enjoy your new TV.

[BMXTRIX]

You TV is not 'widescreen' is is 16:9. Yes, that is wider than traditional 4:3 televisions, but it is like 'hot' and 'cold'... 100 degrees is 'hot' - but compared to 10,000 degrees, it is cold.

When you actually divide the numbers:

16:9 = 1.78:1
4:3 = 1.33:1

Now, many movies are shot using film and use one of three very common aspect ratios for theater, these are
1.85:1
2.35:1
2.40:1

You can see, that every single one of those ratios is wider than your 1.78:1 screen and will produce bars above and below the image.

Actually, the 1.85:1 movies usually are slightly cropped so they properly fill your 1.78:1 screen. The other ones would have to crop a lot of the original film out of the picture to fill your screen. This means you are stuck with the letterboxing (black bars) but you get to enjoy the film the way the director wanted you to enjoy it in its full glory.

Zooming in can usually get rid of letterboxing, but will cut off the sides of the film and will also decrease the quality of the DVD, since you are truly zooming in.

After a while, you will really appreciate this format, but it does take a little getting used to.

[The ORB]

Thanks for the input folks, I'm still learning with all this stuff and sites like this are invaluable. I guess only releasing movies in either widescreen or non-widescreen would be too easy right? It would take all the "interest" out of figuring out which of the various different "Widescreen" formats you were actually getting.

I dont mind the letterbox particularly, its just that it makes the image smaller and a little harder to see. Maybe I should have got the 50 inch plasma, to compensate for that? This HT thing is scary, I've already spent 50% more than I had budgeted on! Its worse than buying fishing gear.

[Mort Corey]

If you've only overshot your budget by 50% (so far), you're doing good

Mort

[Duffinator]

Originally Posted by The ORB

I dont mind the letterbox particularly, its just that it makes the image smaller and a little harder to see. Maybe I should have got the 50 inch plasma, to compensate for that? This HT thing is scary, I've already spent 50% more than I had budgeted on! Its worse than buying fishing gear.

Bigger is better in this case. If you compare the same size 1.78:1 and 1.33:1 sets you will see the widescreen set will give you a bigger viewing area with widescreen content and smaller for standard 1.33:1 images.

http://www.cavecreations.com/tv2.cgi?KeohiHDTV

[BMXTRIX]

What you need now is a projector and a drop down screen. So, when you watch those DVDs at night, you can pull down your 100" screen and enjoy the movie like a true theater experience.

A 42" plasma is almost a 'small' tv by today's standards. 100" projection setups (you can get for under $2K) are the bees knees for sure.

[Spiffyfast]

Yeah I wish I knew more about home theater when I bought my Tv, not that I have any complaints, the picture is unbelievable, just a pain moving the thing around from one place to the next, if I had to redo it, I'd probably get a projector instead