i recently went to a friends house to watch the Lord of the Rings DVD on his new home theater setup. this was the first time i have seen a widescreen dvd displayed on widescreen tv in person.

now, the question i have is how come there were still black bars present on the top and bottom of the screen? the black bars were much smaller than they would have been on a 4:3 tv, but why were there black bars at all?? isn't the whole reason in getting a widesceen tv so that u can get rid of the black bars and have the entire uncropped image fill ur screen?

thanks.....

I believe that only anamorphic movies shot in 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 will fill the entire widescreen. 2.35:1 movies still have black bars, but much smaller ones when compared to bars on a regular 4x3 tv.

The aspect ratio of a wiedscreen TV is 1.78:1. A movie that is 1.85:1 is very close to 1.78:1 so it will display no black bars. Not all movies are shot the same aspect ratio and the wider the film the larger the black bars will be.

Check the FAQ at the top of this forum for more information http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...eadid=165672#9