Aspect Ratio question.
 

Okay I have a quick question regarding aspect ratios of DVDs.

I have a 16x9 47" Panny RPTV and my DVD player is set to 16x9. Okay here's my question. I was watching the Lion King Part 2 which has an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and then I watched The Nightmare before Christmas which is also 1.66:1 aspect ratio. However when I watch Lion King 2 the picture fills the entire screen and when I watched Nightmare there were black bars at the top an bottom as if it was 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Why is this? The only thing different on the box is that the Lion King 2 DVD is a 'family friendly' 1.66:1 widescreen. Am I seeing different results because one of the films is Anamorphic or something? Just curious and figured someone here would know the answer. Thanks.

Yep, sounds like it to me... one is anamorphic and the other is not.

The other thing I've noticed is that Lion King 2 is 16x9 enhanced.

Lion King 2 is anamorphic (16x9 enhanced is the same thing) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (for whatever reason) is not.

K

Nightmare before Christmas is not anamorphic so you stretched a 4:3 widescreen image across your 16x9 screen, thats why you had the bars

Oh okay, so it has to be anamorphic to fill the screen without stretching? So the fact that it's a widescreen movie doesn't mean a hill of beans if it's not anamorphic when viewed on a 16x9 screen? That gets a little confusing. I guess I always thought if you have a widescreen TV and a widescreen movie that it naturally would fill the screen. I didn't know there was such a thing as 4:3 widescreen. I need to do a little more research. Now I know why everyone always wants anamorphic releases. Add me to that group too :)

Also be aware that only 1.66:1 through 1.85:1 DVD's will fill the screen whereas dvd's with wider aspect ratios like 2.35:1 will still have small BB's even if they are anamorphic.

* Note 1.85:1 DVD will have no BB's on most HDTV's since overscan covers them up but on fix pixal HDTV's you will see slight BB's

For non-anamophic, widescreen discs, your TV should have a zoom feature that will make it fill the screen. But for 1.66:1, you'll be cutting off part of the picture.

A 16x9 enhanced disc of a 1.66:1 film should have vertical black bars on the side. That's a nightmare for people with 4:3 sets.

No one wins with 1.66:1.

Yes my TV does have a zoom feature but I don't like cutting off the picture. The small BBs don't bother me, I was just curious as to why one 1.66:1 had BBs and the other 1.66:1 did not. Thanks for all the answers everyone. I knew I'd get a great answer here.

Question: How old is your Panny and are you feeding it with a progressive scan player? I've had a 47" Panny for a couple of years now and if it's being fed a progressive signal, the set "locks" into just mode. You can't zoom it. So, I'm curious if Panny has updated that oversight in the newer models...

I have several Panny players in my rack and one of them has so-so scaling for non-anamorphic DVDs up to 1.85:1 or so... Anything wider than that still looks like shit. I dumped most of my non-anamorphic discs when I bought the Panny (minus the "essentials" ala Psycho, Vertigo, etc).

I have one of the newest models. It's the PT-47X54. Here's a link to the TV: http://www.onecall.com/PID_22655.htm#

It allows me to zoom in no matter what. I'm using a progressive scan player and it's set to feed the progressive signal. I think this TV does 1080 but I don't know how to make sure everything is setup perfect on it or not. The picture looks awesome with all the basic settings. I'm using component cables for the video connection. The manual says it'll do 540p for progressive video but I don't know if that's what it's doing or if it's 480p. I'm sort of a novice with all the 1080i, 540p, 480p, etc.

Cool, thanks... They're silver now eh? Interesting...

Most 16:9 TV's will have an "expand" mode for non-anamorphic DVD's which will fill the screen with the proper ratio.

The only trouble I've had so far is on The Longest Day, the subtitles get cut off in expand mode so I have to watch it shrunk or in 4:3 mode with gray bars on the sides, black bars top and bottom and a slightly smaller picture.