Mantecore

I just bought a brand new 53 inch panasonic tv, some dvd's i play still have black bars, One of the main reasons i got this was to get rid of those? Is it my dvd player? or the specific movie, not all have but like episode 2 has them? Anyone know why?

gabeon

I would suspect that SW: EP2 is 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Widescreen TV's are around 1.6:1 aspect ratio. The movies with aspect ratios of 1.66:1 will fill the widescreen TVs because of the overscan that is present in almost all TVs.

Someone please post with more accurate numbers...I just have the general ideas, and those are probably making the situation worse.

PhYbEr

from the faq at the top

I have a widescreen TV and I still have black bars, why is this?

There could be 2 reasons for this.

First, the DVD you are watching could be letterboxed(non-anamorphic). Even movies that are 1.85:1 will have black bars if it is non-anamorphic, because the scan lines that make up the black bars are hard coded into the image to create the widescreen picture. Also keep in mind that to properly display a 1.85:1 non-anamorphic movie on a widescreen TV you will have "bars" on the top, bottom and sides.

Second, any movie, both anamorphic and non-anamorphic, that has an aspect ratio greater than 1.85:1 will have the black bars. Again you can reduce the black bars by using the zoom feature found on most DVD players.

--- end faq

basically, the movie will have some sort of bars on it if it is greater than 1.85:1 usnless you use a zoom feature..

now you're prolly saying "well why didnt I just get a 4:3 hdtv if I'm gonna have black bars anyway?" well think about the burn in, you wouldnt be able to zoom on the 4:3.. those big black bars would be on every movie you watched..

Mantecore

Do you lose quality when you zoom with a dvd player? My tv has zoom and seems to lose some when i zoom in?

Mr. Salty

You're on the right track, except that widescreen TVs are approximately 1.78:1.

Mantecore, honestly, as small as the black bars are when watching a 2.35:1 movie on a widescreen set, really how big a problem can this be? The whole point of spending the money you've spent on home theater equipment is to enjoy movies the way they were made to be seen in a theater. That means preserving the aspect ratio of the picture, not zooming in and chopping a chunk off just to fill your screen.

Properly adjust the brightness and contrast on your set and watch DVDs in a darkened room. The black bars will disolve into the darkness of the room and you'll never know they're there.

And yes, you lose quality when you zoom.

Mantecore

o ok thanks, its not that big of a deal, it would have just been nicer, but now all my problem is, is what dvd player to get?

PhYbEr

up tp you, but the panasonic rp-82 is rated very highly, I own this one and its great, whatever you get make sure its progressive and has digital coaxial or optical out for audio.. assuming you have a receiver to handle this..

Mantecore

yea i do, i was looking at the jvc xvs60bk, any ratings about it?

chipmac

The JVC is a very good quality player but it has some quirks. I've heard of people having problems with a few discs where subtitles don't display properly. Namely SW Ep I and some of the alien subtitles. I recommend the Panny RP 62 or 82.

Mantecore

at vcdhelp the jvc gets much better ratings for using vcd and stuff, that is also a very important factor, the panny didn't, but my tv is panasonic so i was thinking about just staying in the family.