question about DVDs on a widescreen laptop
 

I use powerDVD. So if I play a 1:85 or 2.35 DVD on my widescreen laptop I should UNcheck the "keep aspect ratio" option so that it doesn't stretch, am I right?

And for "fullscreen" DVDs I should Check the "keep aspect ratio" option to prevent stretch.

Do I have all this correct?

I don't mean to sound rude at all, but why don't you just put a movie in and try it yourself? You'll find out pretty much right away if it stretches or not.

I would say that you want to keep the aspect ratio. It all depends on whether a DVD is anamorphic or not and whether it is flagged as such. Like canary said, playing around with the options will get you the result you need.

I'd be more specific but I don't own PowerDVD.

I'm assuming anamorphic WS here.

On a regular monitor if you UNcheck the "keep aspect ratio" option on a WS movie it stretches to fill the screen. So I would assume it's trying to fit it on a WS when in fact the screen is "fullscreen". So that means UNchecking is the right thing to do on a WS laptop.

You should keep the box checked. This will so keep the actual aspect ratio encoded on the disc. Unchecking will still stretch the picture if it isn't 1.78:1.

But aren't anamorphic WS DVDs supposed to fill a WS screen?

I always leave my software player's "keep aspect ratio" checkbox unchecked when I'm playing any widescreen content on a widescreen monitor (like a 16:9 HDTV or projector). Of course I have my video card set to a widescreen resolution so there's no need to change the aspect ratio.

I believe the option is there to handle widescreen content on 4:3 screens, such as the typical computer monitor, or 4:3 content on a widescreen monitor such as many of the extra features on DVDs.

I've been using a computer and software player as my primary DVD player that way for over 5 years and it seems to work.

I use PowerDVD with my widescreen monitor and keep "keep aspect ratio" always checked so things aren't stretched. The only time I don't have that checked is for non-anamorphic DVDs. With the non-anamorphic DVDs, I click on the Pan and Scan setting, which has the 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 settings to zoom to the proper size for whatever aspect ratio is being watched.

Not if the movie was shot wider than 1.78:1.

"Keep aspect ratio" means exactly what it says. With it checked, the image (whether 4:3 or 16:9) will resize itself to fill as much of the screen as possible, but it won't stretch.

That said, assuming your laptop is like mine, it won't make much difference either way in the case of anamorphic widescreen video. The shape of the screen is almost exactly 16:9, so turning "keep aspect ratio" off just stretches the video ever-so-slightly to fill the screen. (If the ratio of the movie itself is wider than 16:9, it still won't fill the screen.)

Absolutely.

what resolution do you have it set you? I'll have to check what mine is set to. But it should be a WS resolution.

I realize that. But I thought it would feel the screen a bit more to lessen the “black bars”. Guess not?

So taking off the "keep aspect ratio" does actually stretch and not "fill"?

If you have a true widescreen and you're 1:1 pixel mapping (which you absolutely should be) you should be ok. However your screen may not actually be the same ratio as movie widescreen so you might have to do some tweaking of your resolution.

I'm using 848x480 resolution on my widescreen projector. The projector's native resolution is 854x480 so I'm losing 3 pixels on each side but that's the closest I can come to its native resolution.

Sometimes notebooks have an option to stretch the video to fill the screen. You don't want to be using that.

Yes that I know.

I was just wondering if the stretch you get from removing "keep aspect ration" is actually a stretch or a "fill more screen". Guess it's probably a stretch :/