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Anamorphic widescreen - can I watch my DVDs some other way?


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Old 01-06-2008, 19:52
media2001
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OK, so I invested in a huge 42" widescreen plasma HDTV with the intention of sitting watching my DVDs in full fabulous colour.

So, although I knew watching my DVDs would have the black bands on the top and bottom, it suddenly started to annoy me - here i was losing about 2.5 inches on the top and the bottom - when Ibought my TV I didn't buy it to lose this.

Why is it that when BBC or ITV run a film they can fill the whole screen but for me to do it I have to zoom it out an then I lose the sides.

Some may say its "the way the film was meant to be viewed" in cinematic amorphic widescreen - I say give me back my 5 inches!!! Are there any DVDs these days that don't show these?

Thanks!
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Old 01-06-2008, 19:56
btolley
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OK, so I invested in a huge 42" widescreen plasma HDTV with the intention of sitting watching my DVDs in full fabulous colour.

So, although I knew watching my DVDs would have the black bands on the top and bottom, it suddenly started to annoy me - here i was losing about 2.5 inches on the top and the bottom - when Ibought my TV I didn't buy it to lose this.

Why is it that when BBC or ITV run a film they can fill the whole screen but for me to do it I have to zoom it out an then I lose the sides.

Some may say its "the way the film was meant to be viewed" in cinematic amorphic widescreen - I say give me back my 5 inches!!! Are there any DVDs these days that don't show these?

Thanks!
with films made like that it's either show it fully, with black bars, or zoom it in and cut off the sides. I personally don't mind the former (hate the latter) and like to see things how they were made, but that's me.
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Old 01-06-2008, 20:02
Jarrak
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As the OP is aware theatrical movies are made in a variety of ratios and as such DVD's will contain the version that was created by the director/studio.
The BBC and ITV as well as everyone else get broadcast masters that are already chopped to provide a full 16:9 frame or do it themselves (same as for the home viewer) and in some cases the movies are made in 16:9 so no chopping is required.

I don't fully understand why anyone would want to chop of part of the image in a belief that they are missing out without the vertical image of a 16:9 display being filled but if you must then use a connection method (scart for example) which lets the TV butcher the ratio to suit yourself or buy a TV that lets you do this with a HDMI input.

There are many DVD's that have 16:9 video, it's the way the movie was made which is the way it should be viewed
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Old 01-06-2008, 23:26
dennisspooner
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Why is it that when BBC or ITV run a film they can fill the whole screen but for me to do it I have to zoom it out an then I lose the sides.
The BBC and ITV are simply performing the zoom for you.

Their films also have the sides missing.

At least with the dvd you can view it correctly or choose to chop off the sides.

One question: is your dvd player set for a 16:9 tv or a 4:3 tv.

I have yet to see any widescreen tv that will chop the sides off an anamorphic image

If you can zoom in it sounds like your tv is displaying from a player set to 4:3 letterbox mode
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Old 02-06-2008, 09:47
broadz
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So, although I knew watching my DVDs would have the black bands on the top and bottom, it suddenly started to annoy me - here i was losing about 2.5 inches on the top and the bottom - when Ibought my TV I didn't buy it to lose this.
No, you aren't losing 2.5 inches at the top and bottom. You are gaining an extra 2.5 inches at the right and left, which you would lose from the picture if you were watching the 16:9 pan-and-scanned version rather than the correct aspect ratio of it. Which surely is a good thing?

Why is it that when BBC or ITV run a film they can fill the whole screen but for me to do it I have to zoom it out an then I lose the sides.
Because the BBC or ITV (or any other channel, or any DVD that is released in 16:9 format rather than 2.35:1 format) is showing you a picture that was either originally recorded in, or has been trimmed to, 16:9 format.

There is a solution to allow you to lose the edges of your movie by zooming further into the picture than you ought to, so the picture as a whole expands, you lose the right and left edges of the screen and also the black bars top and bottom, depending upon how many different picture aspect ratios your television supports.

Set your DVD player to output in 4:3L format - it will still send out the same picture, not anamorphically compressed, but instead as a tiny widescreen picture in the middle of your screen with black bars left and right, top and bottom.

Then go into the different zoom modes that your TV is capable of. Most widescreen TVs have a ridiculously large zoom option tucked away somewhere in there, probably called Cinema 2 or similar, which will make the picture absolutely huge (and pretty much unwatchable as you will end up with something like 16 pixels being taken up by the one pixel it ought to be using) and you will lose quite a lot of the picture from the left and right hand sides of the screen, but you will also lose the black bars from the top and bottom of the screen. Which seems to be the most important thing to you when watching a movie.
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