[Webwalker]

I have the Hitachi 5500W, and am looking at the purchase of a new screen.

Although the PJ is 4:3 native resolution (SXGA), it produces excellent 16:9 images, and I use this most of the time as I only watch HDTV and DVD.

9 times out of 10 it's perfect when watching widescreen DVD's with the PJ set on 16:9, however tonight I watched "From Dusk till Dawn", and had some issues.

The DVD player is always setup for 16:9 rather than 4:3.

When I watched "From Dusk till Dawn" using the PJ's 16:9 setting (as usual), it 'squashed' the image, which has never happened before with any other widescreen movie? I had to change the PJ's settings back to 4:3 to get a proportional image that looked perfect?

My problem is... I want to buy a widescreen as it's future proof as most HDTV is broadcast on widescreen. Most DVD's are perfect with 16:9 selected, and at the current throw distance, the image height EXCLUDING the black borders is 90cm. The movie "From Dusk till Dawn" shown on the PJ's 16:9 setting was 90cm INCLUDING the black borders. I had to change the PJ back to 4:3 to get an 'un-squashed' image, which made the image size 115cm excluding borders.

I'm assuming (probably not wise) that if I purchase a widescreen screen, that the normal viewing of DVD's will be fine, however there will be no black border on the new screen? Is this right? Or will there still be a small black border visible on the screen? If there is not, that means that I will not be able to watch "From Dust till Dawn" (or similar movies) on the new widescreen sceen if 4:3 is selected? I think I need to know how a widescreen image is displayed on a widescreen screen, as in if it has visible borders?

Sorry if this email is confusing as hell, and thanks for those who understand and give me some (hopefully) good answers to my dilema!

Thanks guys!


Sean

 

[cmoore1]

Is it possible that your copy is in 4:3?

 

[thirdkind]

There are 2 versions of From Dusk Til Dawn. The older one that has the big purple "widescreen" banner on the front is non-anamorphic letterbox, and the collector's edition is anamorphic.


Letterbox discs are technically 4:3, so if your projector is in 16:9 mode it'll appear squished. This will happen with all non-anamorphic letterboxed discs.


As for your "black border" question, any movie that's shot in an aspect ratio wider than 1.85:1 will have slight "black bars" on a widescreen TV.

 

[Webwalker]

Thanks for the responses.


'Thirkind', you know your movies! It has the "purple widescreen banner", and on the back it says that it is shown in it's "orignal theater format, approximately 1:85.

That clears things up nicely, and I'm confident about going ahead with my 16:9 screen now!

Thanks guys!!