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Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

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Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

Old 02-04-09, 09:00 AM
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Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

Is there a way to figure out if a DVD is anamorphic if it wasn't labeled anywhere?

I ask because, when I play non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs on my DVD player, sometimes it automatically fills my HDTV screen (as if it's anamorphic), and sometimes it doesn't - in which I have to zoom in so that the picture fills the screen.

What's the deciding factor for a DVD to automatically fill up the HDTV screen or not? Is it the DVD player, the HDTV, or the way the DVD is mastered?

There is nothing better than knowingly buying a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd, you play it on your dvd player, and it automatically fills the HDTV screen as if it's anamorphic. And especially, when you can't tell it's non-anamorphic (such as the first Office Space DVD which looked excellent).

Last edited by toddly6666; 02-04-09 at 09:02 AM.
Old 02-04-09, 09:12 AM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

Yeah, I've noticed this happening on almost all of my very few non-anamorphic DVDs. It's actually nice in a way because it looks Anamorphic but then again it's really not. If you don't see a DVD labeled Anamorphic anywhere and it fills you up your screen what i usually would do is press the display button and if the letters from the display are cut off a bit at the top then i know it's non-anamorphic but if not then it's completely anamorphic.

Last edited by -TRANCE-; 02-04-09 at 09:16 AM.
Old 02-04-09, 09:33 AM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

I have Mit CRT RPTV w/a Panny RP82. If the DVDs not anamorphic, the pic is either correct or square with the rectangle of the pic inside and that's at 480p. If I sent the TV to 4801, then I have 5 options I can use.
Old 02-06-09, 02:53 PM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

Yeah, anamorphic and aspect ratios seem to cause a lot of confusion. The "official" names are hard to find as well.

You have:

4:3 Full Screen or Pan & Scan

4:3 Letterboxed or Widescreen (which is not 16:9 anamorphic, yet gives you a widescreen viewing area with black bars)

16:9 Anamorphic (or also called letterboxed/widescreen), which is how all the major Hollywood films are encoded which will play correctly on either 16:9 TV or on 4:3 TV w/ generated black bars on top & bottom.

4:3 anamorphic (not sure if that's the official name) is a tricky one because it is an anamorphic picture recorded as 4:3. This will be corrected if you have a 16:9 or 4:3 television which can adjust it to a proper 16:9 ratio. However, if you have a 4:3 TV without 16:9 enhancement or a 16:9 option you will simply get a full screen "tall & skinny, squished" image which cannot be adjusted by any setting on your DVD player.

The best way to tell if it's anamorphic on a standard 4:3 TV is to set your DVD player to 16:9. If the picture is "Tall & skinny", it's 16:9 anamorphic. If it looks normal it was recorded 4:3.

On a 16:9 tv, set your DVD player to 16:9 and then set your TV to "normal setting" with black bars that run down the sides. It should give you a "tall & skinny" picture if it's anamorphic.

I hope this makes sense. Feel free to add any input or correct my terminology!
Old 02-07-09, 04:10 PM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

If you have a computer, there's plenty of programs that will tell you this info. DVDDecrypter does it, and playing it with PowerDVD will also make it easy to tell. Play it in a window, and if the window is square, it's non-anamorphic, if it's rectangle, you have something anamorphic.
Old 02-07-09, 05:05 PM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

Originally Posted by toddly6666
Is there a way to figure out if a DVD is anamorphic if it wasn't labeled anywhere?

I ask because, when I play non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs on my DVD player, sometimes it automatically fills my HDTV screen (as if it's anamorphic), and sometimes it doesn't - in which I have to zoom in so that the picture fills the screen.

What's the deciding factor for a DVD to automatically fill up the HDTV screen or not? Is it the DVD player, the HDTV, or the way the DVD is mastered?

There is nothing better than knowingly buying a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd, you play it on your dvd player, and it automatically fills the HDTV screen as if it's anamorphic. And especially, when you can't tell it's non-anamorphic (such as the first Office Space DVD which looked excellent).

It may be the dvd.Do a search for incorrectly "flagged" dvd's.This problem would pop up with certain dvd's in the past.
Old 02-07-09, 05:44 PM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

I have had conan the destroyer, the abyss, six days, seven nights, and true likes play as a enhanced for widescreen on my panasonic 30 bluray player.

Jacob
Old 02-07-09, 07:49 PM
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Re: Does your DVD player ever do this with a non-anamorphic widescreen dvd?

HDMI= upscaled
COMPONENT= only certain companies will allow upscal
ings

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