I thought I understood the whole letterboxing issue, but maybe not. Before asking I searched threads and did not quite see an answer, and Google seemed to bring up possibly out of date info on the subject (from 2001, 2003 etc).
Anyway I have my new cool 16:9 HDTV, and it works great, HD networks and sports look great and fill the whole screen just fine, life is good. I understand the 4:3 stretch issue (and I am firmly in the camp of keeping it 4:3 for non-widescreen TV, I hate the streched fat people).
But what I don’t understand is why I still get black bars at the top when watching DVDs - in this case a new one (Michael Clayton, FYI). I know it’s showing the whole width of the picture (it’s not a 4:3 version).
My DVD player is about 5 years old.
So
Am I doing anything wrong ?
Is there a setting on my DVD player, or TV, to properly display it, or is the aspect ratio actually not 16:9 for movies ?
Are some DVDs made for this situation ?
If I got a Blue Ray DVD player would this change anything ?
If the film was shot in 2.35:1 it will be a wider aspect than the 16:9 of the set and will still need to utilize the letterboxing format. It has nothing to do with the setting of your TV and a Blu-Ray disc would look exactly the same. 2.35:1 means than the width of the image is 2.35 times larger than the height of the image. A picture 16:9 would translate to around 1.76 times long as it is wide.
According to IMDB, the aspect ratio of “Michael Clayton” is indeed 2.35:1.
To add to what’s been said: yes, there is a setting in your DVD player’s menus that, if it hasn’t been changed since you had a 4:3 TV, should be changed to get things to display properly. Look for something in the menus along the lines of “TV Type”. Options will probably include “4:3 Pan & Scan”, “4:3 Letterbox”, and “16:9”. Make sure that it’s set to “16:9”. This tells your DVD player to display the extra lines when playing an anamorphic DVD, which makes things look prettier on a widescreen TV.
As mentioned above, theatrical aspect ratio often exceeds 16:9, and in such cases black bars at the top and bottom are normal. Most new DVDs seem to list the aspect ratio on the back, and you shouldn’t see black bars with anything around 1.85:1 or so (16:9 works out to around 1.78:1).
If you look at the graphic image on the right hand side of this page, the red 4:3 box is the standard old-style TV set. The blue 16:9 box is your widescreen HDTV. Most movies are filmed in formats ranging from the yellow 1.85:1 to the purple 2.39:1. You’ll notice that the yellow one is practically the same size as your set, so it will fill the entire screen, while the purple one is almost a third wider. To fit that larger image on the 16:9 set, it has to be letterboxed.
Great - I now understand it, the movie is indeed in a different aspect ratio, I was not aware of the 1:85 vs 2:35 issue.
I wonder if it is possible to have all movie screens across the country to be re-sized to fit my TV screen. Until then, can someone please recommend that I get a Blu Ray player, so I can tell my wife we need one. When the black bars are still there, I’ll deal with it somehow.
I’ll do you a huge favor. . . and you can quote me on this: “Don’t just get any Blu-ray player, get a PlayStation3. It’s a great all around Blu-ray and DVD player - in fact, it’s the only one on the market now that can be upgraded to the BD 2.0 profile when it’s released. So you’re making an investment in your future! I’ve got one myself with a 1080p 46” Samsung LCD, and the picture quality on Blu-ray movies and upscaled DVDs is stellar."
Oh, yeah, it also plays games. If you’re into that sort of thing.
Yeah I would agree with Crown Prince of Irony. I think the PS3 is about as cheap as any of the players too.
And if you’re so inclined, it can play Playstation2 and Playstation3 games, MP3s, show pictures (with very cool slideshow effects), play video files, etc etc. And you can install Linux on it.
It’s probably obvious, but no one mentioned that the black bars, when present, are thinner on your 16:9 television than they would be on your old 4:3 television. So you’re still getting widescreen goodness regardless of the DVD aspect ratio on your new television.
While on the subject of black bars onscreen; why is it that a few of my movies, when played on my widescreen computer monitor, are completely inset (meaning the full image is onscreen but is smaller than the monitor’s dimensions, both height and width), even when I’m playing the movie in full-screen mode? Changing aspect ratios doesn’t help; things get cropped off in any mode except the default. I wish I could remember offhand one of the movies that does this (I’ll try to find one tonight) but it seems kind of pointless that the image wouldn’t extend all the way to the full width of the monitor.
EDIT: Nevermind, just found the Wikipedia article on “windowboxing”. Damn windowboxers. Hate 'em.
