I have a small catalog of Disney DVDs. They mention various aspect ratios. For example, “The Emperor’s New Groove” is for Widescreen 1.66:1 while “A Bug’s Life” specifies a Widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio! “Mary Poppins”, however, has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1…and these variations go on and on!
What the hay!?!?! Do they expect you to have to buy a new TV to fit each DVD properly, or are they going to manufacture DVDs specific to each and every possible aspect ratio?
What gives here, and how critical is this if my TV is the wrong aspect ratio? Maybe I could use the “zoom” feature to zoom in out zoom out until it fits my screen? Oh, and is 1.33:1 the standard for full-frame (normal screen, I assume) viewing?
God bless NIST (formerly the Bureau of Standards)!
I’m pretty sure that all (or at least the vast majority of) widescreen TVs are 16:9 (1.78:1). Virtually all modern movies are either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, so on a widescreen TV there is almost no letter boxing for 1.85:1 ratio movies, and far less for 2.35:1 ratio movies than there would be on a standard (1.33:1) TV. I find the 1.66:1 ratio for “The Emperor’s New Groove” extremely strange–why didn’t they just make it 1.85:1?
It is not the least bit critical if your TV is the “wrong” aspect ratio, the image will be adjusted to fit your screen; just make sure your DVD player knows that you have a wide screen TV. Also you should, whenever possible, purchase anamorphic DVDs (sometimes they say “enhanced for 16:9 TV”).
This is what some people with widescreen TVs do when they have non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs. With these kinds of DVDs, the letterboxing is hard-coded into the presentation, which is designed to fit a 4:3 screen, so on a widescreen TV you wind up with black bars on all 4 sides, if you can believe it. Zooming in, though, can usually eliminate the ones on the sides.