[tpirovol2]

Hi Everyone,



I have tried several dvd's that are suppose to be wide screen on my pann 37pa25up plasma but the black bars are still on top and bottom. Isn;t this suppose to go away with widescreen plasmas. I tried gladiator and bourne identity which are suppose to be widescreen which they are on the screen but is it not suppose to be from top to bottom?


Thank You

Terry

 

[chazk13]

There's a good post stickied in the projection forum about this - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=332900

It should give you a good explanation of the different aspect ratios of the dvd's we watch.

Cheers,

chaz

 

[RoyGBiv]

The point is you are seeing them in widescreen. The aspect ratio of these DVDs is actually wider than your widescreen tv giving you black bars on top and bottom. Many movies are 2.35:1 while your TV is 16:9 or 1.78:1. Those black bars would be even larger if you had a conventional 4:3 TV. There is a sticky at the top of the DVD player section in this forum that explains it very well. I am not sure if it's the same as the one mentioned above.


SMK

 

[jliem]

What stretch/zoom mode are people using when viewing widescreen DVD's? Is there a "correct" mode to use, or is it just preference?

 

[chazk13]

I don't do any stretching when watching widescreen dvd's....Maybe I'm not understanding your question, but why would you want to stretch a widescreen dvd?

 

[will2005]

You may be correct in that even 1.85:1 Widescreen may not be displayed properly. On my Panasonic 50PHD6UY, the 1.85:1 DVDs show with WIDE black bars on the top and bottom, and all objects are stretched horizontally. I can, however, get them to display correctly by switching the aspect ratio of the TV to the Zoom mode. This does not cut off any of the picture (as zoom mode does with 4/3 material) and displays the picture with correctly proportioned content. Someone suggested that I needed to reset the default aspect ratio of my DVD player from 4/3 to 16/9, but this did not help. I'm using the component output of a Panasonic DVD Player, and just have to remember to switch the TV to the zoom mode to get a picture I'm very happy with. If the DVDs you are playing are 1.85:1 and you are seeing wide black bars, try switching your TV to the zoom mode.

 

[chazk13]

Hmmm...something is not quite right here then, at least I'd say so. If your dvd player is indeed outputting to 16:9 then there should not be any stretching of the image when your display is set to "full" mode. Perhaps there's a problem with the player? Assuming everything is properly set there shouldn't be any stretching.

 

[Joxer]

Something is wrong. With a DVD player properly set for 16:9 display and the display set for FULL mode a 1.85:1 AR movie should fill the 16:9 screen unless the DVD is an old non-anamorphic title. What is the movie you have a problem with? Try some other 1.85:1 AR movies that say "enhanced for widescreen displays" or similar on the box.

 

[jliem]

Quote:

Originally posted by chazk13 I don't do any stretching when watching widescreen dvd's....Maybe I'm not understanding your question, but why would you want to stretch a widescreen dvd?

My plasma has 5 zoom modes: Full, Panoramic, Cinema, Zoom, and 4:3. One of these is always in effect. Just going by its name, I initially assumed that "Full" was the mode that wouldn't do any stretching on widescreen DVD's. But then I read the manual and it talked about the image being horizontally squeezed in this mode. The manual is written in what I'll call "translated Japanese", so it's actually hard for me to tell what it is trying to convey. So now I'm all confused. Is there actually something to say "override any zoom mode setting currently in effect and don't do any zooming/stretching to the image"? Or is that what "Full" mode actually is (despite whatever explanation may be in the manual)?

 

[martyj19]

Sometimes a "widescreen" DVD is actually in 4:3 with horizontal black bars encoded on the DVD. ZOOM would be the best mode to watch this on a 16:9 TV. But if the DVD is encoded in 16:9, FULL should do it. Assuming the DVD player is set up to know it is playing to a 16:9 display.


If you have a computer available, you can try the movie there to see what the encoded aspect ratio is.

 

[Joxer]

FULL is the correct mode for undistorted view of anamorphic widescreen DVD titles - the stretching is required to reverse the "squishing" due to the anamorphic encoding. For old non-anamorphic titles (4:3 with letterboxed widescreen) you should use the ZOOM mode. The other modes like JUST are for watching 4:3 titles, not widescreen titles.