Noob TV question

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:53 am

Just got a Panasonic widescreen HDTV and I was watching Die Another Day on DVD, which is supposedly a technically well made disc.

So its a widescreen disc and when I watch it on my tv it, there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen as if I were watching it on a regular square television. This is disappointing as I thought thats one of the benefits of buying a widescreen (so that widescreen dvds and such can take up the whole screen without black bars).

Is there an option on the disc to change this--if so what am I looking for? I didn't find anything though admittedly I didnt look very hard.

Is there an option on the TV to fix this? Whenever I click on "Aspect" all that happens is that it zooms on the image (which practically does no good) or selects "just" which doesnt really do anything. Those buttons do drastically change things when I'm watching regular TV, but not for the dvd?

Thanks in advance.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:02 am

just because you get a 16:9 set doesn't mean you'll never see the letterbox again. it depends on the aspect ratio the movie was shot in. you're probably viewing something larger than a movie shot with a ratio of 1.85:1. if so, this is completely normal.

zooming will get rid of some of it, but your resolution suffers, so, for me anyway, that's not an option.

here's an informative link on aspect ratios:

http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml

Post by **silent bob** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:07 am

It could be because you're DVD player is set to output in 4:3. Play some other disks and tell us what happens. If not, what Jugger said.

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:03 am

+JuggerNaut+ wrote:just because you get a 16:9 set doesn't mean you'll never see the letterbox again. it depends on the aspect ratio the movie was shot in. you're probably viewing something larger than a movie shot with a ratio of 1.85:1. if so, this is completely normal.

zooming will get rid of some of it, but your resolution suffers, so, for me anyway, that's not an option.

here's an informative link on aspect ratios:

http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml

damn, so did i make a bad choice in getting widescreen? how often does this happen? on most dvd discs?

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:04 am

silent bob wrote:It could be because you're DVD player is set to output in 4:3. Play some other disks and tell us what happens. If not, what Jugger said.

gotcha, ill check it out tomorrow morning.

Post by **Pooinyourmouth** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:04 am

A lot of movies are going to still have those bars even on a HDTV. But you should really notice that those bars are a hell of a lot smaller than on an old standard TV.

The only things that seem to always fit proper are high def cable or satellite stations. I have 1080i cable and it puts DVD movies to shame in picture quality.

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:06 am

cool, yeah i have digital cable but havent checked out the hd channels yet.

also i made sure that my tv has hdtv built in. did that really matter or is hd-ready good enough? the guy at best buy (i didnt buy it from there) said that in the future it might be a concern but it might not really make a difference now. what do you guys think? does it matter?

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:29 am

Chupacabra wrote: damn, so did i make a bad choice in getting widescreen? how often does this happen? on most dvd discs?

how do you figure you made a bad choice? if you watch mostly widescreen media, then you made the best choice possible by getting away from 4:3.

Chupacabra wrote:cool, yeah i have digital cable but havent checked out the hd channels yet.

also i made sure that my tv has hdtv built in. did that really matter or is hd-ready good enough? the guy at best buy (i didnt buy it from there) said that in the future it might be a concern but it might not really make a difference now. what do you guys think? does it matter?

i bought mine HD-Ready. this way, i choose the type/brand of decoder. also, if the decoder takes a dump, i just buy another one. i'm sure it's more expensive to have one replaced inside your set. i wouldn't sweat it. enjoy your tv.

btw, seems like you didn't do your homework. :icon8:

Post by **Giraffe }{unter** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:06 pm

without getting into all the technical BS, most wide screens have a zoom, or aspect ratio button. Yes it does Zoom in on the movie but you will notice it is only stretching the vertical, the horizontal is remaining the same width.

Most movies though you will still see the black bars, but normal wide screen movies they will disappear.

Post by **Nightshade** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:26 pm

Pooinyourmouth wrote:A lot of movies are going to still have those bars even on a HDTV. But you should really notice that those bars are a hell of a lot smaller than on an old standard TV.

The only things that seem to always fit proper are high def cable or satellite stations. I have 1080i cable and it puts DVD movies to shame in picture quality.

That's because most DVDs are 480p, AFAIK. Discovery HD Theater is one of the reasons I got my HD set, it looks fucking amazing.

Post by **Dek** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:29 pm

here ya go...

http://gregl.net/videophile/anamorphic.htm

Post by **Doombrain** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:58 pm

16:9 isn’t the same format as cinemas; you’re going to get the borders

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:13 pm

chime chime chime

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:30 pm

well, i did homework but barely anything. so i had some idea, but was still a bit confused on some things and thought i should ask you guys. probably not the best way to go about it but ah well.

regardless, after reading this http://gear.ign.com/articles/552/552433p1.html i feel that everything is fine.

thanks for the responses. the main reason i got this is to watch the world cup 2006 (abc/espn/espn2 will broadcast every game in HD).