shore_pk

Twice recently we have watched dvds that had black bars all the way around the image.

One movie was To Kill a Mockingbird and the other was Hell in the Pacific.

I don't really understand why a movie would be what appears to be normal widescreen (1.85 to 1) would have black bars all the way around it. My bluray player automatically decides how to display the movie.

When we watched Mockingbird I thought it was strange but it was a rental and so I blew it off. Hell in the Pacific is doing the same thing and when I tried it on my computer it still did it, thus eliminating my blu ray player as the problem.

Is this a normal display of these movies or is something wrong with the way these discs were manufactured?

If this is the way the movie is intended to be viewed I don't really see the point. It just makes the movie small on my 49" widescreen tv. Very annoying!

Linda

P.S. I would post an image but I can't figure out how,except to link to flickr which I can't do because I don't have enough posts yet.

BillWatkins

Sounds like they're non-anamorphic.

big e

Yea, they're non-anamorphic. What you're experiencing is letter-boxing.

Silverscreenvid

Most widescreen TV sets have a variety of display options. You can experiment with your set and find one that cuts off the top and bottom of the image. That will give you an image that fills the screen (at a lower resolution).

DVD Guy ATL

What they said. When you rent or buy a widescreen movie on DVD, always look for the terms "anamorphic" or "enhanced for widescreen TVs" on the packaging. I believe the production of non-anamorphic discs was mostly abandoned a few years ago, though, so you should be safe with anything from the last 3-4 years.

Silverscreenvid

Many re-releases, especially second tier catalogue titles, just use the existing transfer. That's especially true if you buy a multipack in which they just slap together 3 or 4 movies for $10.

shore_pk

Ok...I understand now. I just recently replaced my dvd player with a blu ray player. When I used the old player I had the ability to use a setting on my tv that made a non anamorphic dvd fill the screen. My new player has to use a different hook up on my tv so that I can use the HDMI cable and now I don't have the ability to change the way the dvd is displayed on my tv. I will double check everything to see if I am overlooking a way to make it fill or expand to fill the tv fully.

Thanks,

Linda

rw2516

Hook up both HDMI and component from player. When you run across a letterbox dvd just switch tv to the component input.

orangerunner

The whole 4:3 vs. 16:9 thing is rather confusing because it depends on what your TV is and what the settings are on both the TV and DVD player.

I've seen people author DVDs as 4:3 anamorphic which will work fine on a 16:9 TV but it will look distorted on a 4:3 TV no matter what your DVD player setting is.

The happy medium is 16:9 anamorphic because it will fill the 16:9 TVs and will drop black bars on the top and bottom on a 4:3 screen when the DVD player is set to 4:3 widescreen.

You really have to study the packaging to avoid fullscreen and non-anamorphic widescreen. Sometimes they just say widescreen and they are indeed anamorphic (Coffy) and sometimes they aren't (Natural Born Killers, Artisan version).

joe_b

My copy of Coffy (from the MGM 'Soul Cinema' line) is NOT anamorphic. Was there another version?

orangerunner

I stand corrected, it is 4:3 Widescreen. It's my copy of Foxy Brown that is 16:9 anamorphic.

tylergfoster

The one exception is Universal, who will frequently create all-new discs as opposed to putting existing pressings into a package: http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/51...llections.html

Ash Ketchum

When I bought my big screen TV back in 2007, I was going for a 27-inch, but some sixth sense at the store made me spend a few bucks more for a 32-inch set and I'm glad I did. Because most of my DVDs look better in "Normal" mode, which means a rectangle in the middle of the screen, bordered by black all around. Which makes my set a 22-inch set for all practical purposes. Which is fine with me. Most "anamorphic" DVDs look distorted or "fuzzy" on my set when set up to fill the screen. Some don't look that way and I value those (mostly studio transfers of older Hollywood movies), but those are few and far between. E.g., VIVA LAS VEGAS from my Elvis box set looks great in full anamorphic mode.