I've got an assortment of DVD's some of which are 'Widescreen' and some are 'Fullscreen'. I recently picked up a new TV in the form of a Pioneer Elite 64" Widescreen. I guess I would have figured that the Widescreen DVD's would fit the TV perfect, but the opposited seems to be true. Many of my Widescreen DVDs leave black bars and the top and bottom of my screen in various sizes. Some I can change the picture size to fill up the screen and some I can't. This isn't that big a deal in most cases but some of the movies leave LARGE empty areas above and below the picture(while also distorting the proportions of the picture ) even after setting the screen to 'Zoom'.
Basically, my question is which DVDs should I be purchasing? I don't like to skew the picture by changing the size of the picture but I like the black bars above and below the picture even less...
I guess the simply answer is just to purchase Fullscreen huh?
Check your DVD player to make sure it is set on wide screen. Make sure the player is connected to the display via three-wire component interconnects (unless you have the newer digital connections on both the player and the display). Set your DVD player to progressive scan, not interlaced. With a big beautiful new display like that, I would never buy full screen discs, because you are giving up the picture on both sides of wide screen media. You're not crazy, but you're better off having black bars at the top and bottom than losing actual content from the picture.
Whether or not black bars appear on a widescreen tv is dependent on the aspect ratio of the DVD.
A true widescreen tv is 16:9 (1.78:1) vs a normal 4:3 (1.33:1) tv. Movies are shot in a wide variety of aspect ratios.
If the DVD says it is 'widescreen' then:
A 1.78 movie will fill the screen completely.
A 1.85 movie will show very small black bars at the top and bottom unless the tv has alot of overscan.
A 2.0 or 2.35 movie will have large black bars at the top and bottom because 2.35:1 is much larger than 1.78:1.
A lot of action movies are shot in 1.85:1. Some less active movies use an aspect ration of 1.78:1. Your widescreen TV is 1.76:1.
Now what do those numbers mean? 1.78:1 is the ratio of width in inches to height in inches. In other words, there's 1.78" width to every 1" of screen real estate on a widescreen TV. So it's nearly twice as wide as it is tall. 1.85:1 is even wider, which is why most action movie directors specify it. You can fit more action on the screen in a more intense display.
Since your widescreen TV is 1.76:1 it so close to perfect for 1.78:1 you'll never notice the difference. But 1.85:1 is a bit wider so you get the black bars on top and bottom.
Fullscreen is 1.33:1. It is noticeably less wide. You'll get the black bars on the sides when you display this on the widescreen TV.
There's also a very good reason not to buy Fullscreen DVDs. If the movie was orginally filmed in and widescreen format, much of the image will have to be removed to make it fit the 1.33:1 ratio. Sometimes as much as 50% of the image is affected. Widescreen is far closer to the theatrical release, even if you still have bars on the top and bottom of your screen.
1. Watch only films with a 1.78:1 screen-size format. Once you factor-in overscan(a picture reproduction problem affecting 99.99% of all displays save for front projectors) you can probably also watch 1.85:1 films, and maybe even, if your overscan is really bad, 1.66:1 films and the picture will appear "black bar free". Or you can watch HDTV, which I believe is all 1.78:1 AR.
2. Watch all fullscreen movies and "stretch" the picture horizontally using TV controls. This leaves you with both a highly distorted picture AND upto 34% missing of the original picture frame.
3. Watch widescreen movies and apply a vertical "stretch" to films with an AR wider than the monitor (such as a 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 movie). This allows you to retain all of the original picture frame... but things may appear very tall & thin.
4. Watch all your material in its original aspect ratio (OAR), you will have to deal with vertical bars on scope movies, and horizontal side bars on academy standard TV & movies, but everything will have all of its original picture and have no 'stretch-induced' distortion.
In otherwords..... there is no way to avoid black bars AND picture distortion 100% of the time.
Basically, my question is which DVDs should I be purchasing? I don't like to skew the picture by changing the size of the picture but I like the black bars above and below the picture even less...
I guess the simply answer is just to purchase Fullscreen huh?
Am I crazy or does this bother anyone else?
Your new TV is actually optimized for the broadcast TV of the near future (HDTV). It doesn't quite match up to the several theatre aspect ratios discussed above, but you do get to see alot more detail if you buy the widescreen versions.
I have no problems with those black bars on the top and bottom. I prefer to see the film as it was done by the director.
Unless I am distracted, I will only buy Widescreen.
Actually, I prefer to see the black bar instead of having my 16x9 full, this means I am seing the original film. Having a 57 inch allows me to see the real thing (yours is even bigger). When there are not bars on top and bottom (as some DVD) I am thinking that somebody has decided to cut the image: the guy who does the censure has less insight than the guy who makes the film. Every dummy can cut the image in a few minutes.
Cameraman and Director of photography spend hours for every minute to try to have the perfect image/angle. I want to see their result.
At the end of the day, this is a matter of choice.
With the FULLSCREEN version, you lose about 20% of the picture. FULLSCREEN is for wimps.
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In otherwords..... there is no way to avoid black bars AND picture distortion 100% of the time.
Well, not practical way with a direct view set, anyway. If you have an FPTV and a lot of cash you can buy a motorized masking screen that will move the mask around to the precise size and shape for any aspect ration. This costs more than a lot of HD projectors, but it would solve your problem.
As others have pointed out, there's a wide variety of aspect ratios in use, and any single one they'd have chosen would've left out several. The black bars shouldn't too to noticable with most sizes. I guess I just don't notice them anymore.
I'm a fanatic about always keeping the OAR.
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DVD's; Widescreen or Fullscreen?
) even after setting the screen to 'Zoom'.
)
Linear Mode
