Black letterbox bars/Oppo 103

[Mountainear]

Are there ways to get rid of black letterbox bars without Zooming the picture? On my new TV, the picture doesn't look right when zooming. Thanks in advance for all your help. It is just frustrating, in this day and age, with no tvs being sold now that aren't widescreen, to still have black bars at top and bottom when viewing dvds or blurays. Does anyone know if the Oppo 103 has aspect ratio choices that get rid of these? without messing up the PQ like my Panny does when zooming, the picture appears stretched, unnatural, house of mirrors to an extent.

 

[Adam]

Hi. The aspect ratio control for the Oppo 103 starts on page 32 of the owner's manual. As far as I can tell, none of the options do what you want - but you can always give them a try.

As you know, the black bars are due to the video having a different aspect ratio than your TV. Even though TVs these days are 16:9 "widescreen," there are different aspect ratios used for movies. All TV shows that I know of are now in 16:9, movies can have a higher aspect ratio. With aspect ratios greater than 16:9, you have to have some of the side image cut off if you want to fill the entire screen without distorting the image. With aspect ratios less than 16:9 (such as older 4:3 shows), you have to have some of the top/bottom image cut off if you want to fill the screen without distorting the image. That's not a problem with your Panasonic - it's just geometry.

 

[j_garcia]

Nearly ALL TVs today have a mode that will get letterbox to fit the screen top to bottom, however the sides will be cut off if you don't want a distorted image. That is the trade off. You can't have your cake and eat it too with a letterbox film.

 

[Mountainear]

Thanks a bunch Adam! It appears that by the Oppo 103 owner's manual pgs 32... that the Oppo does do a Full Screen zoom, which cuts off some of the very top and bottom of the material, but doesn't appear to do a house of mirrors stretch on the video. I think I could be interested in having this option, just don't know if the extra money is worth it just for this option. To the best of my knowledge, my Sony bdp-s5100 does not have this option, at least that works on material that is greater than 16:9. It has 2 settings that appear may affect this, Full vs Normal for Screen Format, and Letterbox vs Pan & Scan for Dvd Aspect ratio. It appears the Full instead of normal adjusted The Incredibles nicely, which had a 1:33 format, smaller than the 16:9 of my tv. Does anyone know of a <$500 dvd player that offers the Full Screen zoom option the Oppo appears to offer, that actually works? I'm losing 5 vertical inches from my new tv, resulting in a px not much different than the 32" it replaced. How many of you put up with black bars on your computer monitors? I'm calling for a revolt!
P.S. I hate to sound whiny, but my new Panny has a really thin bezel and looks swell when the screen is filled with HD content, not so swell with black bars.

 

[Mountainear]

Nearly ALL TVs today have a mode that will get letterbox to fit the screen top to bottom, however the sides will be cut off if you don't want a distorted image. That is the trade off. You can't have your cake and eat it too with a letterbox film.

Thanks j_garcia, could you point me to this option on the current lcd panny's? I don't think I'd mind cutting some side material as much as the distorted image its Zoom/Just option appears to give.

 

[Adam]

Oops...I thought that you had the Oppo already. I guess that you can't try it.

I don't watch a lot of material that's not 16:9 or close, but when I do, I don't mind the black bars. For 4:3 material, I tend not to use the stretch option because even though my Panasonic does a decent job of it, I prefer the original aspect ratio. On your Panasonic, the "Zoom" option shouldn't distort anything - it should just cut off part of the image. Is it distorting?

 

[Mountainear]

Sorry Adam and jgarcia, in looking further, there is a Sidecut Zoom option on the Panny that doesn't distort, just cuts off the sides of the video. Now, just to figure out what I want to live without, the sides or black bars bottom and top.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... Now, just to figure out what I want to live without, ...

Yes, sounds like an issue of preferences.

 

[Mountainear]

I just wonder how the tv/cable channels do it, present movies in 16:9 format, appearing uncut but with no bars? And what do they do it with?

 

[Grador]

I just wonder how the tv/cable channels do it, present movies in 16:9 format, appearing uncut but with no bars? And what do they do it with?

They do it the same way that you would get 4:3 movies on VHS, Pan & Scan. They'll zoom in a little and [hopefully] pick the most relevant portion. Keep in mind that if you zoom the bars away you'll also loose a little bit of PQ in addition the cropping off the sides. Any time you scale an image digitally you can (and usually do) add artifacts.

 

[zhimbo]

Different films have different shapes, there is no single "widescreen" format. Only if a film is precisely 16:9 (assuming a 16:9 TV, which nearly all are) will there be no black bars, either on top (for extra-side screen formats) or the sides (for 4:3, old-style TV format). There's simply no possible way to get rid of the black bars without either cutting off part of the image, or degrading the image, or both. Learn to live with black bars, and you'll be much happier and have the best possible picture quality.

 

[mtrycrafts]

They do it the same way that you would get 4:3 movies on VHS, Pan & Scan. They'll zoom in a little and [hopefully] pick the most relevant portion. Keep in mind that if you zoom the bars away you'll also loose a little bit of PQ in addition the cropping off the sides. Any time you scale an image digitally you can (and usually do) add artifacts.

And, if the broadcasters mess with the original aspect ratio, then must disclose that it has been modified.