[OnGoingTea]

Hi, I just got a infocus SP4805, and I have a possibly dumb question. First off I have a denon dvd910 dvd player that I am running in 16:9 and I also have a 90 inch wide screen (manual screen), and I have the projector set to widescreen. When I play movies like finding nemo or even saving private ryan (which is widescreen) it appears to fill my entire screen. When I play other movies, such as gladiator or matrix revolutions I get black bars on the top and bottom, even though I have everything set to widescreen. I have the dvd hooked via component video. The ones that are showing black bars are 2:35:1 and saving private ryan is I believe 1:85:1. I want to know why not all the movies are filling the entire screen. I don't want to zoom the picture with my dvd player as it degrades the signal, and changing my projector to letterbox scretches everything. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Is it normal to have black bars while watching most widescreen movies?

 

[valve]

It's because the movies aren't 16x9. 16x9 is a 1.78 ratio. So, movies that are filmed in 1.85, 2.35, ... will not fill a 16x9 screen.


What you are seeing is perfectly normal.


valve

 

[smass]

Exactly - there is no "standard" widescreen format. The easiest way to deal with this is to have a screen masking system of some sort. What I do is adjust my pulldown screen for the vertical size of the particular movie that I am viewing. I then adjust the angle of the projector so that the image fits edge to edge on all four sides of the screen. My mounting system has a ball connection that makes it easy to infinitely adjust the projectors angle. Further - my ceiling is only seven feet high so I can easily stand underneath the projector and align it match the screen.


This works well for me - if you don't have a pull down screen you may want to look into some sort of masking system. By the way - the phenomenon is not only with front projection. If you have any kind of 16:9 monitor - rear projection, CRT, LCD, Plasma - you will have the same issue with black bars for different aspect ratios. Luckily with front projection we have the ability to mask the screen with a little ingenuity....

 

[Ja Phule]

And if you watch those movies on 4:3 tv, you'll also notice some have bigger black bars than others (1.85/2.35)

 

[OnGoingTea]

Hey guys, I appreciate all the advice, just wanted to see if it was a normal phenomenon or not..


Thanks

 

[DennisDMenaz]

may i ask u for e.g if my infocus sp4805 bulb is over 250hrs do i really have to take it out and vacumm it or can i wait longer b4 i do it cause i read in the manual book says that i have to do it if it reaches 250hrs

 

[NewToHT]

#1....Why did you revive a 1 year old thread to ask a totaly different question??....


#2.....If the manual says to do it......do it. I just did it and it took less than 10 minutes. A new bulb costs a bit under $400....I think it is worth your time to treat the bulb the way the manufactor says to........

 

[Quadlog]

I've done it and it really extends the life of the bulb. You'd really be surprised how much dust can get on that screen - especially if you have a lot of carpet and pets.


That being said, my 4805 is in the "shop" right now being repair under warranty. 6-8 weeks later I'll get it back.....

 

[DennisDMenaz]

hi again may i ask u something regarding the infocus sp4805 projector is that if lets say my projector come to a blink which say that i need to change my bilb and if the bulb is not burn, can i reset the bulb timer and i use back the same bulb???

can i do that?just reset the timer cause i have heard of a friend that he used to do like that and he still can use the old bulb as new for a couple of hours like maybe 100hrs?hope u ppl reccomend me something cause i might scared the bulb get blown or socked???