I am nearing a purchase of a 16X9 enhanced TV soon, but have a question. Just how bad do non anamorphic 2.35:1 movies look on a widescreen tv. Just wondering if I should keep the square TV around to watch those on or if I can just adjust to having bars all around. Not sure if this counts as more of a hardware question, but Kenwood can move it if it is. Thanks.

I would think it's more of a hardware question....

Most sets have zoom modes to compensate, but at the cost of image quality. I would test a disc out to see for yourself.

Good luck with the set. 16:9 is really nice. Progressive too?

-David

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Blade:
I would think it's more of a hardware question....<HR>

Yep....Moving



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On a 16x9 set you wouldn't have bars all around with a 2.35:1 movie. You just have top and bottom bars, like you would have with a 4x3 set, but the bars are much smaller relative to the image which goes all the way across the screen. It's far preferable to watching the tiny picture on a square TV.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by X:
On a 16x9 set you wouldn't have bars all around with a 2.35:1 movie. You just have top and bottom bars, like you would have with a 4x3 set, but the bars are much smaller relative to the image which goes all the way across the screen. It's far preferable to watching the tiny picture on a square TV.<HR>

How about with a non-anamorphic DVD? I thought only the anamorphic ones stretched across the entire screen. I am going to take several DVDs with me and test the sets out to be sure.

Doesn't matter if it's anamorphic or not to fill up the horizontal. Anamorphic affects the vertical size. Or more correctly, the vertical resolution/detail of the movie.

Ignore the above -- I'm an idiot.

[This message has been edited by X (edited December 27, 2000).]

quote:<HR>Originally posted by X:
Doesn't matter if it's anamorphic or not to fill up the horizontal. Anamorphic affects the vertical size. Or more correctly, the vertical resolution/detail of the movie.<HR>

No, that's not correct.

A non anamorphic DVD will output a 4:3 video image. 4:3 images on a 16:9 screen will have black bars on the left and right of the image.

A 4:3 letterbox movie will also have black bars on the top and bottom of the image, giving you an effect that's called windowboxing, or black bars on all 4 sides of the image.

This is one more reason why anamorphic fanatics are fanatics.

I believe the Pioneer sets have some good zoom modes to adjust for this and for other 4:3 programming, but as I said before, any zoom mode comes with a certain loss of image quality. If you have a lot of non anamorphic DVDs, you may want to take some down and demo them on the sets you're looking at.

-David

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Blade:
No, that's not correct.<HR>

Thanks for the correction. Just tried out non-anamorphic 2.35:1 Pulp Fiction to see what was going on. Had a hard time finding a 2.35 non-anamorphic DVD!

Of course the picture goes all the way across in all movie-watching modes on my Pioneer, but the aspect ratio is most correct in the television-watching 4x3 mode with grey bars on the sides -- a mode probably nobody uses -- but it does show the proper relative vertical/horizontal size. Normally you would use the Cinema Wide (or possibly the Natural Wide) mode on this movie which does stretch all the way across the screen, but it must be (and very slightly appears to be) stretching out the image horizontally a bit. And therefore, as Blade said, losing picture quality. Not so much in loss of resolution, that I could see, just in the slightly stretched look which would take about 10 seconds to get used to. I can't imagine that you would prefer using the 4x3 mode but I've been wrong before.

To answer the original question, even in these "stretched" modes it's still way better than watching on a TV. Just check out the different brands of sets to make sure their stretch modes are acceptable to you. I believe Pioneer is acknowledged to do them the best -- even regular TV looks good filling the screen.

Again, thanks for the correction. I'd hate to steer someone wrong due to my ignorance. And what's worse, ignorance about being ignorant.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by X:
Again, thanks for the correction. I'd hate to steer someone wrong due to my ignorance. And what's worse, ignorance about being ignorant.<HR>

Don't sweat it. That's why we participate in forums. So others can catch our mistakes. Heaven knows I've made more than my fair share of them in my day!

And did I mention I'm jealous? I wish I had a 16:9 set!

Also, I assumed that the TV would be zooming in (or "blowing up") the image to get it to fit on the screen properly. That's where I assumed some loss of image quality would come in. I forgot that they can just stretch out the image too. Learn something new everyday.

-David

Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it.

take a look at this
www.dvdweb.co.uk/information/anamorphic.htm

Don't watch non-anamorphic videos stretched out to fit the screen! My friend does this on his 46" HDTV & it drives me crazy. It's all stretched out. Use the mode that cuts off the top & bottom of the 4x3 & then fills the 16x9. It frames the movie exactly the same as the "stretch mode" does for anamorphic. If you have a progressive-scan player, the image"blow-up" that you have to use for non-anamorphic movies won't be too bad. It's another story if your tv assumes all progressive signals are anamorphic though. Then you have to use S-video or non-progressive component for the non-anamorphic. My friend has this problem, which is why he just watches non-anamorphic stretched out- he's too lazy to switch. My 65" HDTV let's me change modes all the time (except if it's a 16x9 HD signal), so even the non-anamorphic look pretty good in the "zoom" mode with progressive-scan.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Blade:
16:9 is really nice. Progressive too?
<HR>

Does anyone make a 16X9 rear proj set that can't do at least 480P? I hope not.