Okay now when I watch SD bonus features, I understand that it is presented in 4:3, all that stuff.

But...some material when viewed in SD is squeezed even BEYOND those 4:3 pillars, so that there are pillars inside pillars, and the result is a really thin image. So far I have experienced this on The Third Man Criterion, and A Bug's Life.

Is anybody else experiencing this? Like I said, everything else is normal, even on other BDs, SD content is presented in normal 4:3 settings.

I just threw in A Bug's Life and the only odd thing I found was that Geri's Game was windowboxed. All of the SD material seems to be displaying correctly, even though the opening of The Grasshopper cartoon and the original trailers are window boxed.

What player are you using, and which segments did not display properly. Maybe there's a setting off in your player.

fitprod

I'm using the Playstation 3. The segment that I tried it out on was the one where they interview the cast members. Not sure what settings I'd have to adjust though.

Well, most extras are SD-only and in 4:3. Then, there are some extras that are SD but non-anamorphic 16x9 letterboxed. I'm sure that's what you're talking about. Some commercials on HD channels are like that. Very annoying but unfortunately I doubt there's much that can be done to fix it.

I'm not talking about non-anamorphic 16:9 content. This is what I'm talking about (I apologize for the crappy drawings. If I had AutoCAD, this would look better. )

What it's supposed to look like (4:3 content):


What it looks like when I watch it (grey bars are representative of extra pillars):

It looks like your TV isn't unsqueezing the picture when it's doing that.

One significant knock against the PS3 is that it does not upscale SD content on BDs, so I assume that your issue is a setting in one of the sources where you are feeding the signal.

My (recently stolen) PS3 played SD content correctly when the video was sent directly to my (now stolen -- thanks cocksuckers!) TV, but when I upgraded to an HDMI receiver I would have to force any 4x3 SD material into a 4x3 setting on either the TV or receiver if that material was to display correctly. (Otherwise, it was stretched to fill the 16x9 frame.) One BD that displayed 4x3 SD content correctly, with no settings adjustments, was 'The Third Man.' So presumably that content is presented pillarboxed within a 16x9 frame on the Criterion BD.

I recently replaced my PS3 with a Panasonic BD60 (which upscales SD content correctly) and I no longer have this (stretching 4x3 SD content on BDs) problem. (For some inexplicable reason, the Onkyo 806 was not stolen.) Plus, the BD60 can effectively eliminate pulldown on both BDs and most DVDs!

Yes. It's either your TV or your receiver, not the Blu-ray disc or the format in general.

I've had similar problems before with PS3. I remember I was able to fix it one time by adjusting my TV settings. I know on my TV the settings change when it goes from 1080p to 480. Yet I watched a disc recently that was having this issue and I couldn't fix it. I despise the fact that the PS3 doesn't upconvert SD material on Blu Ray since that would solve all of these problems.

Like Darth said... I think it's a PS3 glitch, I think it has a harder time adjusting from HD to Anamorphic SD.

I seem to remember those type of problems when I would use the PS3 as my primary player, before I picked up a BD55.

fitprod

Well. Now I'm turned on.

That does seem like an odd issue. Are there any video mode options on the PS3 while in-movie on SD stuff?

The different video modes only work on DVDs.

I think the issue is the TV. It's squeezing the 4:3 signal for some reason.

I've had my PS3 & BD-55 both hooked up the same way for months to the same TV. It was originally HDMI straight to the TV and then HDMI through my receiver; the BD-55 has never made this error, but the PS3 will still do it sporadically.

fitprod