[titus1971]

I just recently got an HDTV (Sanyo HT30746) All in all I'm extremely peasd with the HD cable side of it , Most DVD's play just fine but some (V for Vendetta in particular) ALWAYS show the letterbox bars. The TV is set to 16:9 , and the DVD player is set to 16:9. Even if the DVD was recorded in 4:3 (It doesn't say one way or the other on the actual DVD) it would seem more likely that i would see pillarboxes rather than letterboxes? It's very weird watching a movie with letterboxes on a wide screen TV. Sorta like looking at one of those funhouse mirrors.

Am I missing something?

FYI, DVD is a cheap Magnavox DVD/VCR Combo.

 

[PooperScooper]

Very few movies are made in a 16x9 format, 1.78:1. Here's a post that shows how many formats have been used: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&post9494342


Any format ratio great than 1.78:1 will have black bars on top and bottom if shown in original aspect ratio (OAR) on a 16x9 TV. Some movies are made in 1.85:1 and with overscan you may not see the small bars on your screen, but they should be there.

larry

 

[titus1971]

Thanks Larry, that was very helpful. I just wish Movie Studios would label the DVD boxes more clearly so we'd know what to expect. I guess that also explains while when watching an HD broadcast and it goes to a commercial sometimes letterboxes and/or pillarboxes are displayed. I'm supposing that means the commercials were filmed in different aspect ratios? (see I can be taught)

 

[rosh400]



Quote:
Originally Posted by titus1971 /forum/post/0


Thanks Larry, that was very helpful. I just wish Movie Studios would label the DVD boxes more clearly so we'd know what to expect. I guess that also explains while when watching an HD broadcast and it goes to a commercial sometimes letterboxes and/or pillarboxes are displayed. I'm supposing that means the commercials were filmed in different aspect ratios? (see I can be taught)

The majority of today's movies are either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. There are two reasons why you see pillarboxing or letterboxing on commericals. Even on HD channels, many commercials are still SD. Some commercials are letterboxed 4:3. The actual image in those is probably 16x9 but SD. If it is just letterboxed alone, it is probably HD but at an aspect ratio that's wider than 1.78 to1.


Next time you are at the movies you might notice that the curtains move prior to the start of the movie. The curtains are adjusted to match the aspect ratio of the movie being shown.