alongoria

We have a widescreen tv that fits to screen all the movies and HD stuff and I hate that so i set it to make it think my tv is 4:3 Letterbox and the black lines appear at the top and bottom and everything looks way better.

Do you prefer this or keep it how it is to fit to the screen? (Sorry if my wording sucks)

Mr. Salty

I have no idea what you're asking.

alongoria

I'm not really asking anything im just seeing what people prefer.

On all widescreen tv's i'm assuming that it fills the screen automatically and not showing the black bars like a widescreen movie would or say if you were watching a show in HD.

Mr. Salty

I think you need to read the sticky thread about home theater FAQs. You need to be concerned about your TV showing the correct aspect ratio (whatever the movie or TV show was meant to be seen in), regardless of whether it fills the screen or leaves black bars at the top and bottom or on the sides.

And you DID ask a question (your thread title is even "Just a question"). You asked what we prefer, and the preference around here is for the original aspect ratio (OAR). Why on earth would you not want an image to fit your screen if that is the way it's supposed to be?

Spiky

You must realize there are many, many different shapes of TV and movies. Saying "it fills your screen" really doesn't mean anything unless you know what the OAR is.

Brian Shannon

There is no spoon, keep repeating this,

There are no black bars.

In fact there is nothing there, since you are seeing all the image there is. If you choose to stretch or distort the image to "fill" the screen you have that is your choice.

I prefer to watch the program in whatever format it began with, ie., OAR.

shelland

This is actually a pretty common question for new HDTV owners - "why do I have black bars even though I bought a widescreen TV?"

The answer is that not all movies are filmed in the same aspect ratio. Once you know that, you'll even notice it in theaters. This is as a result of how they were filmed in the studio - not specifically the DVD itself. In general, any DVD that is in a ratio of 1:85 will not have black bars (maybe small bars, but typically won't be visible due to overscan). Any DVD in a ratio of 2:35 will still have black bars. In this case, you are seeing the image as intended by the film's creators.

The two ratios are completely different - with 2:35 being wider but shorter:





If you stretch the image to fill your screen, you are cutting off up to 1/3 of the image. Pretty much anyone you ask in an HT forum is going to tell you to NEVER stretch the image, and use the original aspect ratio (OAR). If you're watching the movie in a dark environment with a properly calibrated TV, you won't see the bars because they blend in with the environment.

HD material will not have bars. Check the back of each DVD case to see what the ratio is.

Here are some links:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...hic/index.html
http://home1.gte.net/res0mrb7/widescreen/aspect.html
http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml (lots of good info on this sight - click around)

DVD Josh

Since when?

Brian Shannon

DVD Josh, you are just prolonging the agony

DVD Josh

I agree. I'll stop

shelland

OK, I made invalid generalizations - admittedly my mistake! Most of the HD that I watch is general TV programming, so I don't see any black bars. I didn't take into account HD movies or HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (which I don't have yet).

For any HD that is broadcast in the original ratio of 2:35 (whether it be a movie on TV or High Definition DVDs), there would indeed be black bars - same reason as above.

Are there other scenarios I'm forgetting?

Mr. Salty

Not to nitpick, but it's 1.85:1 and 2.35:1, not 1:85 or 2:35. See the images in your first post.

warbird

That's pretty much nit-picking!

The dirty little secret is that just about all print/TV ads you see, that are used to sell HDTVs, will never ever show "black bars" in their ads. I think that's why it's a common question for some new HDTV owners.

Xbox69

I wonder if the OP had his connections and settings correct. There are adjustments you should make in all the components. The TV, cable box and DVD player.

The first time I saw my friends HD set-up with cable, the picture didn't look all that great. He had even spent some extra money on component cables from his HD cable box to the TV. I found the problem was that he still had the TV source set to CABLE, (of course, since he's got cable, right?) even though he had the Component1 correctly hooked up he wasn't utilizing that connection at all. The cable box aspect ratio was also set to stretch. I don't even think the DVD player was set for a 16 x 9 monitor and he was using a composite A/V connection with that.

shelland

So it wasn't my day - cripes, I know this stuff. It's Monday...

Mr. Salty

And if yours was anything like mine, you were having a pretty crappy Monday!

DVD Polizei

I like mine stretched.