This could certainly be in the wrong forum and, if so, please feel free to move it to the approriate place.

I'm a little confused as to what aspect ratio DVDs I should now purchase for use with my HDTV (16:9). There are a couple of DVDs on sale right now (Gladiator and X-Men 3) that I would like to pruchase. Both are listed as Widescreen editions, but the AR of X3 is 2.40:1 and the AR of Gladiator is listed as 1.85:1. According to my math, I'm assuming that the 1.85:1 is more suited to the 16:9 display. Am I correct in this thinking? The 2.40:1 would probably have some decent size leterboxes, right?

Just trying to get knowledgeable about this stuff, so any and all help/comments/suggestions you can privude are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

-Jeff-

This could certainly be in the wrong forum and, if so, please feel free to move it to the approriate place.

I'm a little confused as to what aspect ratio DVDs I should now purchase for use with my HDTV (16:9). There are a couple of DVDs on sale right now (Gladiator and X-Men 3) that I would like to pruchase. Both are listed as Widescreen editions, but the AR of X3 is 2.40:1 and the AR of Gladiator is listed as 1.85:1. According to my math, I'm assuming that the 1.85:1 is more suited to the 16:9 display. Am I correct in this thinking? The 2.40:1 would probably have some decent size leterboxes, right?

Just trying to get knowledgeable about this stuff, so any and all help/comments/suggestions you can privude are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

-Jeff-

Right, anything wider than 16:9 (= 1.78) will have black bars above and below. I don't think you have much of a choice: films made 2.35:1, etc, are seldom trimmed to fit a 16:9 display. This has been much more common with "Full Screen" versions which trim to 4:3 for older TVs.

-Bill

Any and all DVDs labelled WIDESCREEN are what you (and everyone, IMHO) should be buying.

Depending on the aspect the film was shot in, you may still have black bars at the top and bottom.

FULLSCREEN (or Foolscreen ;) ) films generally have had the left and right sides of the original theatrical image lopped off so that they fit a "standard" 4:3 ratio TV. Done mainly due to the millions who are used to the VHS movies that almost universally had this done and think that those black bars on the top & bottom mean they are losing something.

On a 16x9 display, any DVD with a ratio greater than 1.85:1 will have some black bars top/bottom. Still infinitely preferable to having big black bars on the left and right (and losing up to half the image the director intended you to see) from a fullscreen version.

There are some exceptions of course. Films made up until the mid 1950's were framed in a 4:3 aspect. CASABLANCA, GONE WITH THE WIND, WIZARD OF OZ, and most older Disney titles (pre-SLEEPING BEAUTY) are examples. A more recent example would be several of Stanley Kubrick's films, like THE SHINING or FULL METAL JACKET--also originally framed 4:3 (and released that way on DVD) but "croppped" to widescreen for theatrical release.

Also be aware that some older DVD titles, released during the advent of DVD and not yet updated, may be "widescreen" or "letterbox" but are still set up for standard 4:3 TVs. The images will generally appear as rectangular boxes in the middle of your 16x9 screen (think black bars all around). Usually, this is due to being directly ported over from the laserdisc version. You will have to utilize the "zoom" or aspect functions of either your player or your TV in order for these DVDs to properly fill your screen.

When looking at Widescreen DVD's the keywords to look for are "Anamorphic Widescreen" or "Enhanced for Widescreen 16:9 TV's" to avoid the exceptions jwebb noted above. A recent addition to my collection was Armageddon, it's widescreen but not Anamorphic or enhanced so it displays letterboxed and pillarboxed.

When looking at Widescreen DVD's the keywords to look for are "Anamorphic Widescreen" or "Enhanced for Widescreen 16:9 TV's" to avoid the exceptions jwebb noted above. A recent addition to my collection was Armageddon, it's widescreen but not Anamorphic or enhanced so it displays letterboxed and pillarboxed.

There is a nice article on the topic here: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/index.html

Sometimes new editions upgrade to anamorphic, but there are still many titles available as 4:3 letterboxed only.

There are also titles that are letterboxed in region 1, but anamorphic in other regions.

This is also discussed in the "DVD Movie, Concerts..." forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=44

-Bill

Thanks for the links. I'll be checking titles from now on if I don't see the magic words in the product description. Luckily the zoom feature on my player worked pretty well without noticeable degradation of PQ.

PS I had the digitalbits link bookmarked and had referred others to it in the past but it didn't even occur to me to check every title. Major brain cramp here.