I have no interest in buying any more DVDs or blu-rays that insist on putting those damn black bars at the top and bottom of my screen. Is there any way I can tell from the label before buying that the film is going to make correct use of my widescreen?

fail

1.33 & 1.66 will include the proper framing with black mattes on the left and right of the screen.

1.85 & 1.78 will fill you screen completely

2.35 & 2.40 will include the proper framing with black mattes on the top and bottom of the screen.

These all make correct use of your monitor, it's just an issue of you understanding that all films are not shot the same way.

fitprod

epic fail!!
they don`t put any bars on your screen!! that is the original theatrical
aspect ratio!!
correct use of your widescreen?? you seem to have no clue about
video presentation whatsoever.....
if you didn`t have 78 posts already, i would definitely suspect that
you just wanted to troll the forum
in any case i am surprised you even posted this in an hd thread!
you sound more like the average joe sixpack customer who still
buys his full screen dvds out of the walmart 2 dollar bin

iambic pentameter

People, please :notrolls:

I hate when they put those bars on the top and bottom of a perfectly good square Full Screen video which in turns makes it a fancy-pantsy rectangle. Rectangles are for those arty people.

No, there's a more artsier crowd out there who watch it this way....

Your definition of correct and the rest of the world's definition of correct are two different things.

I tried to watch Casablanca on my beautiful HD TV and you know, I thought when I finally broke down and got a widescreen TV and a blu-ray player the days of black bars would end. NO! Now I have to watch movies with humongous black bars on the sides. WTF? I thought blu-rays were supposed to be "widescreen".

To help get rid of those pesky black bars on the side of the screen, you might need to don a pair of these:

I wholeheartedly recommend Snow White and The Wizard Of Oz for the OP.

Then i guess you have no intrest in buying any more movies on bluray or dvd then. cause with the exception of movies shot in 16x9 your going to have those on a majority of the release to present the film in the propper aspect ratio,the way the director intended it to be seen.


-notrolls-

Vizio is coming out with 21x9 tv sets this year so no black bars on 2:35.1 movies!

http://www.engadget.com/photos/vizio...579691#2579689

58inch 21x9 more info:

http://www.vizio.com/news/VIZIOLaunc...DTVTechnology/

Just use your damn Zoom button.

I hear they are going to start releasing 1:33.1 HDTVs soon. Here's what they look like:



I can't wait to see how Blu Ray is going to look on these babies.

in 480p! Time to ditch the big rectangular one. Takes up too much space.

I know, I prefer 480i, the more pixilation the better. I don't want no fancy video image looking all real and smooth. Plus it's easier to clean the beer stains off a square tv. Them LSD or LCD screens or whatever them kids call them today are hard to clean.

Wow! So much for asking for help and expecting to receive anything but insults. I'm new to blu-ray, but I'm no troll.

I understand that these bars are common and that they have to do with how the movie was filmed. All I was saying is that I'd like to learn how to avoid them in the discs I buy.

Thanks to fitprod for providing the information I was seeking. This will help.

your welcome. and this isn't just a blu-ray thing...it's the same with dvds.

You can't.

Unless you only buy 1:78 or 1:85 or use some controls on the dvd player or the tv to stretch the image.

Here is a thought, there are no black bars. You are referring to the area of the screen where there is no image. What you are seeing with a 2:35 aspect ratio is all the image there is.

People do not realize but this happens in the movie theater as well. How do they deal with it? The screen has masks or curtains that block off the area without an image, but the screen is still larger.

Try focusing on the film's content, not what you want to be there

Even though I'm a staunch OAR defender, I must interject that this is not normally true: in most properly configured theaters, the mattes open up for 2.35, and 'scope films actually are shown on a larger screen than 1.85 films.

The fact that the opposite is true in typical home video displays is the source of much of the objection to letterboxing. The image really is smaller, and we OAR defenders don't serve the cause by denying it. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the majority of widescreen displays are LCDs with black bezels on which it is essentially impossible to to render true black, so the fact the gently backlit gray bars are made that much more obvious.

The other important difference is that theaters have, in effect, adjustable viewing distance to the screen (you can choose how close to sit). This is rare in homes, where seating positions are fixed and usually too far from the screen. And when the movie is 2.35, "too far" becomes "much too far."

IMO the discussion needs to focus on proper room lighting and display calibration that allows the deepest blacks achievable on a given display, plus emphasis on seating distance vs screen size. But the fact is that if your sofa is 10 feet from your 42" LCD in a normally-lit room, you are going to be more unhappy with letterboxed movies than with full-screen movies, and at that distance the loss in PQ from zooming the display is probably not going to be as noticeable as the gain in visibility.

Being new to Blu-Ray does not excuse a complete and total ignorance of Aspect ratio. This issue existed even on VHS and Laserdisc.

And choosing which movies to watch based solely on the AR they were shot in is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

You are no different than the person 10 years ago who only bought "Fullscreen" DVDs because their "TV was square, so the movie should be too."

Either buy a bigger screen or educate yourself. But don't expect members of an enthusiast site to commiserate with you.

Just curious, how come your posts are always formatted like this? I can always tell it's you posting by the overuse of the enter key and almost zero use of the shift key.

But why does it look like the enter key's used so much? Is it because of the device you're using?