Hey all,

So I am really loving my new 981 and the picture is wonderful upscaling to my Aquos 42"

I have a question though. I know that most dvds these days are letterboxed for the widescreen format. This format shows the black bars at the top and bottom of the image on the screen for a regular television, therefore giving it the rectangular aspect ratio needed for widescreen.

What I don't understand is that I have the same thing on my widescreen television. Any dvd I watch gives me those same black letterboxed bars! The only way to fill the screen is to zoom the picture, diminishing the quality and losing parts of the image.

My question is, since my tv is already widescreen, why does the 981 still give me those bars and how can I get rid of them?!!?!
:confused:

Thanks in advance for any info you might have!

Flash

Hey all,

So I am really loving my new 981 and the picture is wonderful upscaling to my Aquos 42"

I have a question though. I know that most dvds these days are letterboxed for the widescreen format. This format shows the black bars at the top and bottom of the image on the screen for a regular television, therefore giving it the rectangular aspect ratio needed for widescreen.

What I don't understand is that I have the same thing on my widescreen television. Any dvd I watch gives me those same black letterboxed bars! The only way to fill the screen is to zoom the picture, diminishing the quality and losing parts of the image.

My question is, since my tv is already widescreen, why does the 981 still give me those bars and how can I get rid of them?!!?!
:confused:

Thanks in advance for any info you might have!

Flash

Two possibilities off the top of my head... First, you have a 4:3 display selected in your DVD player's set up menu, which would squeeze your films inside of your widescreen display. Make sure you have widescreen no squeeze selected in your DVD player's set up menu.

Second idea is you're watching really wide movies. Movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are in the 2:35 to 1 Aspect ratio which is a wider ratio than High Def's 1: 1.78. That would mean you can still see slight bars on the tops and bottoms.

Here's a link to better illustrate...
http://www.rexer.com/cine/oar.htm



There's two to try anyway... ^_^

Hey all,

So I am really loving my new 981 and the picture is wonderful upscaling to my Aquos 42"

I have a question though. I know that most dvds these days are letterboxed for the widescreen format. This format shows the black bars at the top and bottom of the image on the screen for a regular television, therefore giving it the rectangular aspect ratio needed for widescreen.

What I don't understand is that I have the same thing on my widescreen television. Any dvd I watch gives me those same black letterboxed bars! The only way to fill the screen is to zoom the picture, diminishing the quality and losing parts of the image.

My question is, since my tv is already widescreen, why does the 981 still give me those bars and how can I get rid of them?!!?!
:confused:

Thanks in advance for any info you might have!

Flash

This is one of the most frequently asked questions on AVSForum, and it is not specific to the 981. They've put some useful stickies in the HD disc forums, for example: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824239. Follow the links there.

Any title with an aspect ratio wider than 16:9 (= 1.78:1) will show black bars even on a widescreen display.

-Bill

Two possibilities off the top of my head... First, you have a 4:3 display selected in your DVD set up menu, which would squeeze your films inside of your widescreen display. Make sure you have widescreen no squeeze selected in your DVD player's set up menu.

Second idea is you're watching really wide movies. Movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are in the 2:35 to 1 Aspect ratio which is a wider ratio than High Def's 1: 1.78. That would mean you can still see slight bars on the tops and bottoms.

There's two to try anyway... ^_^

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately it is neither of those. I have the widescreen display selected in the dvd player's settings, and every film has bars. Not slight either an inch and a half at least on top and bottom. And it is all films, not just ones like star wars. I just watched a low budget Italian film that is about 10 years old and it still has the bars. Arrgh!

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately it is neither of those. I have the widescreen display selected in the dvd player's settings, and every film has bars. Not slight either an inch and a half at least on top and bottom. And it is all films, not just ones like star wars. I just watched a low budget Italian film that is about 10 years old and it still has the bars. Arrgh!

What resolution output are you using on the OPPO? Does the TV scale and display them differently when you toggle through them? (I.E. 480 > 540 > 720 > 1080) What's the native resolution of that display?

What resolution output are you using on the OPPO? Does the TV scale and display them differently when you toggle through them? (I.E. 480 > 540 > 720 > 1080) What's the native resolution of that display?

I upscale to 1080p and the display's native resolution is 1080p.

I cannot toggle resolution on the oppo while a dvd is playing. I think you need to stop the playback to do that. Anyway, I always leave it at 1080p.

Do you think that has something to do with it?

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately it is neither of those. I have the widescreen display selected in the dvd player's settings, and every film has bars. Not slight either an inch and a half at least on top and bottom. And it is all films, not just ones like star wars. I just watched a low budget Italian film that is about 10 years old and it still has the bars. Arrgh!

Could you give us examples of titles which have black bars which you think shouldn't?

Some older widescreen titles are non-anamorphic, meaning they will have black bars on all four sides.

-Bill

This is one of the most frequently asked questions on AVSForum, and it is not specific to the 981. They've put some useful stickies in the HD disc forums, for example: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824239. Follow the links there.

Any title with an aspect ratio wider than 16:9 (= 1.78:1) will show black bars even on a widescreen display.

-Bill

Thanks, I've read both of those sites, and while educational, don't solve my problems. Basically according to those sites, the problem I am having is the result of watching 2.35:1 cinemascope films. I think that is a rare format.
I have already watched about 15 dvds on this setup, and I am highly doubtful that every single one of them were shot in a 2.35:1 AR, as most of them were not big budget blockbusters.

Could you give us examples of titles which have black bars which you think shouldn't?

Some older widescreen titles are non-anamorphic, meaning they will have black bars on all four sides.

-Bill

Well, thanks to netflix, I can give a partial list:
A Good Woman
The Starmaker
Superman Returns
Ang Sarap Ma-In love
Solaris
Casino Royale
Babel
Born into Brothels
Oldboy
The accused
Quiz Show
Dark Days
Auberge Espanol

With the exception of the Filipino movie, which must have been shot in 4:3 and came out correctly with the bars on the left and right, all of these films gave me the thick letterboxing of a 2.35:1 film. I would guess that only Superman Returns and Casino Royale could have been shot this way.
Certainly not Born into Brothels, a low-budget doc shot on video (great doc by the way)!

I upscale to 1080p and the display's native resolution is 1080p.

I cannot toggle resolution on the oppo while a dvd is playing. I think you need to stop the playback to do that. Anyway, I always leave it at 1080p.

Do you think that has something to do with it?

If your display is 1080p then nope, that's not the problem.

Do you have any other players in your house? Is the Oppo the only DVD player that's been hooked up to this TV? Have other DVD players been hooked up that didn't do this?

What 'zoom' mode is your TV on? (This is a long shot, since it sounds like you definately know what you're doing. :-) )

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just going down a list in my head. :-)

Well, thanks to netflix, I can give a partial list:
A Good Woman

This is 1.78:1 and anamorphic, so it should not show black bars.

The Starmaker

1995 Italian? It's 2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114808/technical

Superman Returns

2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348150/technical

Ang Sarap Ma-In love

Can't find that in the IMDB.

Solaris

2002? It's 2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307479/technical

Casino Royale

2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381061/technical

Babel

This is 1.85:1 and the disc is anamorphic, should there should be very small black bars.

Born into Brothels

Also 1.85:1, but I can't tell if it's anamorphic, so it might have black bars on all four sides.

...and so on. You can look up the aspect ratios and DVD details on IMDB.

If you really are seeing thick bars on 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 anamorphic titles, and you are using 1080p, and you have the player aspect ratio set to Wide/Auto, and you are not zoomed out, then I can only guess that there is some aspect ratio control on the display that needs adjustment. I've never seen this behavior on my LCD, or heard of it on the Oppo threads.

Theatrical film releases have been about 50% 2.35:1 for decades, by the way.

-Bill

This is 1.78:1 and anamorphic, so it should not show black bars.



1995 Italian? It's 2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114808/technical



2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348150/technical



Can't find that in the IMDB.



2002? It's 2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307479/technical



2.35:1: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381061/technical



This is 1.85:1 and the disc is anamorphic, should there should be very small black bars.



Also 1.85:1, but I can't tell if it's anamorphic, so it might have black bars on all four sides.

...and so on. You can look up the aspect ratios and DVD details on IMDB.

If you really are seeing thick bars on 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 anamorphic titles, and you are using 1080p, and you have the player aspect ratio set to Wide/Auto, and you are not zoomed out, then I can only guess that there is some aspect ratio control on the display that needs adjustment. I've never seen this behavior on my LCD, or heard of it on the Oppo threads.

Theatrical film releases have been about 50% 2.35:1 for decades, by the way.

-Bill

thanks Bill and Chirpie,

I only have this one tv/dvd in my apt, so it is hard to tell. While definitely no expert, I do understand the settings on the tv/dvd player, and think they are set correctly.

Bill, thanks for the research! I am going to test a few flicks this weekend, referring to the imdb technical info. I didn't realize that so many films were shot in 2.35. The only one I am sure there is something wrong there is Babel, since it definitely came out letterboxed!

Tonight when I get back from work I will do some testing and fine tuning. I will let you know what I've found!

Thanks again. :D

Tonight when I get back from work I will do some testing and fine tuning. I will let you know what I've found!

Do you have a calibration disc? I would be curious to see how the alignment/overscan/geometry pattern looks. I don't think Avia would work in this case because its patterns are 4:3. DVE has the correct pattern, but my favorite disc is GetGray: http://www.calibrate.tv/. You have to download it and burn your own disc, but it has everything I need.

Does your display have some sort of 1:1 pixel mapping mode?

-Bill