Two Really Dumb questions

[murl]

Why in the heck do they make movies in the format to where you have to zoom it to make it fit the entire screen, aren't all TV's pretty much the same now?

If you don't zoom the picture where it takes up the entire screen on a plasma and it still has black above the picture and below will you get image retention?

 

[Nemo128]

You shouldn't have to worry about image retention. As for the format inconsistency, I'm not sure what you mean.

 

[jostenmeat]

There are many, many AR's (aspect ratios). Some I've come across include 1.77, 1.78, 1.85, 2.00, 2.35, 2.37, 2.39, 2.40, and I'm sure there are many more.

Sometimes they film the movie with a larger screen, so to speak, and the producers/director will decide to crop some image.

Sometimes a certain film will have an AR that itself is cropped for the DVD/BD.

Sometimes a movie has multiple AR's, the Dark Knight being a prime example.

If you zoomed all the AR's for full screen, you obviously are missing some of the picture. In certain cases, maybe a LOT of the picture. Can you imagine watching Lord of the Rings, taking out a whole lot of the image? Do you blame Peter Jackson for going with the more cinematic, wider AR of 2.40? Nah, I'd rather he design if for the theater, and not my neighbor's 42" tv.

Some persons use masking systems for the PJ so that it always looks like a full screen.

There is even some new TV, maybe it was a Runco (??), that has a 2.35 screen or something like that. Costs more than a car, and of course you'll still get black bars on the sides when watching more squarish AR's.

Don't blame the movie theaters for not designing the screens based on our old CRT tv's.

 

[Pyrrho]

Why in the heck do they make movies in the format to where you have to zoom it to make it fit the entire screen, aren't all TV's pretty much the same now?

If you don't zoom the picture where it takes up the entire screen on a plasma and it still has black above the picture and below will you get image retention?

Movies are made to be shown in theaters, and they are not standardized, nor have they ever been standardized. Basically, with movie theaters, they project onto a screen, which is partly covered with curtains to cover the portion not in use at that time. So movie theaters can typically accommodate a wide variety of aspect ratios. The choice of aspect ratio is an aesthetic and, dare I say it, business decision on the part of those making the films. You might want to look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_formats

You might as well ask, why did they make widescreen movies when everyone's TV was 4:3? The answer, of course, is the same, and appears above.

As for burn in, I strongly suggest you read the cautions in your owner's manual, and act accordingly, rather than trust me or anyone else online regarding what may or may not damage your TV.

 

[Brian_the_King]

I think murl is complaining about movies that are still released in a 'widescreen' 4:3 format.. if you accidentally buy one for your widescreen tv you now have a four-sided letterbox unless you zoom the image. I have only ever seen two movies like this though.

 

[markw]

I think murl is complaining about movies that are still released in a 'widescreen' 4:3 format.. if you accidentally buy one for your widescreen tv you now have a four-sided letterbox unless you zoom the image. I have only ever seen two movies like this though.

I've always considered widescreen and 4:3 as mutually exclusive.

I can't recall a "widescreen 4:3" movie, ever. I have, however, seen such an effect from a TV program when they show a widescreen movie (in letterbox) that's shown on a wide screen TV set. Black borders on all four sides.

Widescreen movies, when shown on a 4:3 TV will fill the screen from right to left with bars at the top and bottom. Likewise, I'll live with the black bars on the sides of the screen when a full 4:3 image fills the entire top to bottom of the viewing screen. Both cases allow the full picture to be viewed with no cropping.

 

[Brian_the_King]

...I have, however, seen such an effect from a TV program when they show a widescreen movie (in letterbox) that's shown on a wide screen TV set. Black borders on all four sides...

Exactly. There is also a small number of movies on DVD that have been released like that. I unfortunately happen to own one of them, What About Bob?

 

[Pyrrho]

I think murl is complaining about movies that are still released in a 'widescreen' 4:3 format.. if you accidentally buy one for your widescreen tv you now have a four-sided letterbox unless you zoom the image. I have only ever seen two movies like this though.

You mean the non-anamorphic widescreen movies, right? I think they are an abomination, and the DVD format should prohibit release of films that way. Every DVD player can output an anamorphic disc for a 4:3 screen, so making a disc that simply has black bars as part of the picture instead of being anamorphic is not a good thing at all.

However, that isn't what the original post complained about. If it is what he or she meant, he or she should now say so. But given the fact that the post complained about "black above the picture and below" [emphasis added in both parts of the quote], I think you are mistaken about what this thread is about.

 

[deedubb]

What I'd like to know is, now that you probably can't even buy a 4:3 TV if you wanted one, why am I seeing DVDs that are "full screen" more than ever?

When 4:3 was standard and DVDs were coming out, a lot of them were anamorphic only. Now I see a lot of 4:3 DVDs. Makes no sense to me.

Anyway, just get a projector and anamorphic lens and be done with it. Watch movies the way they were intended to be watched. The only drawback...I rarely buy or rent 1.78 movies now.

 

[Pyrrho]

What I'd like to know is, now that you probably can't even buy a 4:3 TV if you wanted one, why am I seeing DVDs that are "full screen" more than ever?

When 4:3 was standard and DVDs were coming out, a lot of them were anamorphic only. Now I see a lot of 4:3 DVDs. Makes no sense to me.

Anyway, just get a projector and anamorphic lens and be done with it. Watch movies the way they were intended to be watched. The only drawback...I rarely buy or rent 1.78 movies now.

You can still buy a 4:3 TV, and you can still get one that is merely NTSC (i.e., 480i), but has a digital tuner built in. These tend to be very cheap. If you doubt this, go to your local Best Buy and ask for a TV that costs less than $100, and say you don't care about HD.

As for the releases, I don't know why so many DVDs these days are released in 4:3 format when the film was made as a widescreen film. Perhaps it has something to do with Blu-Ray, because it could be that they now think that if you care about your films and have an HDTV, you are buying Blu-Ray discs instead of DVDs. That, however, is just a spur-of-the-moment guess, not a well thought out guess.

 

[Scarriere]

In my opinion, some people make too much fuss about AR and/or black bars. The various AR's don't bother me at all except for one. What would bother me is watching a movie that is 4:3. I would know that I am not seeing the whole picture and that is unacceptable to me and I refuse to watch it. I don't notice black bars above and below the picture (when the movie is above 1.78) ,for I am too involved in the movie to notice them. That's the great thing about movies, escapism.

 

[Pyrrho]

In my opinion, some people make too much fuss about AR and/or black bars. The various AR's don't bother me at all except for one. What would bother me is watching a movie that is 4:3. I would know that I am not seeing the whole picture and that is unacceptable to me and I refuse to watch it. I don't notice black bars above and below the picture (when the movie is above 1.78) ,for I am too involved in the movie to notice them. That's the great thing about movies, escapism.

Some movies were shot in 4:3, so, for them, it is the right aspect ratio. Unfortunately, you often have to research the film to know this, because sometimes they incorrectly say on the back of the DVD case that it has been reformatted to fit your screen when the reality is that the original was shot that way. The best approach is to research a film on the Internet to find out how it was shot, and then buy the correct version of the film, if such a version has been released.

 

[Nemo128]

In my opinion, some people make too much fuss about AR and/or black bars.

Yeah, I think it's the result of the "I want every millimeter I paid for" mentality. Some people don't even think about how the original was filmed, they just want it to fill their screens and will sacrifice IQ (scaling, filling) to get that satisfied feeling.

 

[markw]

Just got back from the BIL's house.

They just got a HDTV in there living room and my nephew, a comuter whiz, set it up.

As I was watching it, I noticed that, in most cases, the top half of everyones face was missing. When I mentioned this to him, he told me that he found a way to "stretch" a normal (4:3) picture to fit the full width of the 16:9 screen without making the people look fat.

I guess their missing half their faces bothered him less than those black bars on the side.

whatever...

 

[Nemo128]

They just got a HDTV in there living room and my nephew, a comuter whiz, set it up.

As I was watching it, I noticed that, in most cases, the top half of everyones face was missing. When I mentioned this to him, he told me that he found a way to "stretch" a normal (4:3) picture to fit the full width of the 16:9 screen without making the people look fat.

I guess their missing half their faces bothered him less than those black bars on the side.

whatever...

Ha, yeah, there's a zoom mode that zooms in on the image while maintaining the AR. It basically makes the 4:3 image go to the sides while chopping off a good amount from the top and bottom. Tried it, hated it, preferred the black side bars or the chunky effect. =)

For low res digital TV, I don't care about maintaining the AR, it looks like pixelated trash either way.

 

[Pyrrho]

They just got a HDTV in there living room and my nephew, a comuter whiz, set it up.

As I was watching it, I noticed that, in most cases, the top half of everyones face was missing. When I mentioned this to him, he told me that he found a way to "stretch" a normal (4:3) picture to fit the full width of the 16:9 screen without making the people look fat.

I guess their missing half their faces bothered him less than those black bars on the side.

whatever...

That zoom mode is, however, perfect for dealing with some non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs. Of course, if they are not quite wide enough of a widescreen, it can still cut a bit off the top and bottom, though if it is very wide, there will still be black bars at the top and bottom (which, in my opinion, is fine).

Because of that, it is one of the few aspect ratio/zoom modes I use, as I like to maintain the proper aspect ratio of the films I watch. Lucky for me, my wife and I are of one mind on this issue. I don't watch TV or movies at other people's homes, so what they choose is of little interest to me. They can cut things off or distort things all they want, and as long as I am not forced to watch it, that is okay by me.

 

[ChrisJam]

You can still buy a 4:3 TV, and you can still get one that is merely NTSC (i.e., 480i), but has a digital tuner built in. These tend to be very cheap. If you doubt this, go to your local Best Buy and ask for a TV that costs less than $100, and say you don't care about HD.

As for the releases, I don't know why so many DVDs these days are released in 4:3 format when the film was made as a widescreen film. Perhaps it has something to do with Blu-Ray, because it could be that they now think that if you care about your films and have an HDTV, you are buying Blu-Ray discs instead of DVDs. That, however, is just a spur-of-the-moment guess, not a well thought out guess.

We still have one of these old, large CRT sets. It has a great picture, we got it in the late 1990s, and we hope it lasts many more years.

When it dies, we'll get a modern flat-panel set, of course. In the meantime, we love what we have.

That said, if a DVD gives us a choice between wide-screen and full-screen modes, we always choose wide-screen. That's one reason we got a fairly big CRT in the first place--so when we watch letter-boxed movies, we don't lose too much screen real estate.

Chris

 

[lsiberian]

We still have one of these old, large CRT sets. It has a great picture, we got it in the late 1990s, and we hope it lasts many more years.

When it dies, we'll get a modern flat-panel set, of course. In the meantime, we love what we have.

That said, if a DVD gives us a choice between wide-screen and full-screen modes, we always choose wide-screen. That's one reason we got a fairly big CRT in the first place--so when we watch letter-boxed movies, we don't lose too much screen real estate.

Chris

Don't worry buy the time it dies they will have moved from tv to VR lol.

 

[ChrisJam]

Don't worry buy the time it dies they will have moved from tv to VR lol.

I was hoping for a holodeck, but I'd settle for VR.

Chris