[TheEconoclast]

Well, I searched and searched and went through 20 pages of threads on here but couldn't find anything on this issue, so here goes... be gentle, it's my first post!


I've got a Sony KDF-42WE655 (42" LCD rear projector) that's a few years old, but it does up to 1080i. I actually bought it back in '04 because of all the positive reviews I read on here! So far it's been great. You guys know your stuff.


My wife got me the Xbox HD-DVD add on for Christmas, and I've watched two movies so far, Miami Vice and Lady in the Water. Each one of them displays at "full" screen i.e. no black bars on top or bottom which seems OK for Lady in the Water which is 1.85:1 (~16:9) but not Miami Vice, which I believe is 2.35:1. And while each of these is displaying at "full" screen some of the picture is cut off by the border of the TV as though the display was zoomed in just a little bit. While watching them, something seemed intuitively off, and when I did some tests w/ zoom & pan, I confirmed that it indeed was not showing some of the picture on all sides.


I've got my TV set to "Normal" display mode, nothing funny like Wide or Wide Zoom. I've tested it at both 720p and 1080i, and it's the same case with either resolution.


Anybody know anything about this? Is there a setting I need to change w/my Xbox? Or is there something I need to do with my TV? I hope I've been clear enough with the description of the issue, but let me know if anything doesn't make sense.


Thanks in advance!

 

[aydu]

I have the same TV and have enjoyed it since it came out of the box.


When fed an HD signal, the set locks onto Full mode. This will display whatever aspect ratio the film has. Black bars will be present at the top and bottom of the screen for images presented at less than 16x9.


All sets have some overscan, which pushes the image a bit over the edges of the viewable screen. If you feel you're seeing more than that, I'd check the settings in your player to make sure you've identified your tv as a 16x9 display.


I can't think of any settings on the TV that would allow you to alter the Full display mode.

 

[GlennRW]

Im confused . the Op states he does not see black bars and suspects it is being zoomed wich sounds like a valid suspicion considering miami vice's ratio. Yet you tell him it is normal he has black bars becuase the display always puts out the original ratio?


Overscan wont fill any movie to full screen ofcourse so that couldnt be it.


Not trying to be the wise ass here ,i just dont get it.

 

[Bulldog3777]

I have a Sony KDF-E42a10 and I get the black bars just as I should. 2.35 and 1.85 will both have bars. 2.35 will have more black bar than 1.85. A 1.78 would be no black bars. So if you see no black bars, something is wrong.

 

[TheEconoclast]

Well shoot... now I'm completely baffled. I did some more tests with both DVDs this afternoon, comparing the HD version of the movie with the SD version, and both versions appear to be identical.


Sorry for the initial confusion, but in the case of Miami Vice, at 2.35:1, there ARE black bars on the top and bottom, but something just feels different than my old DVD player. Maybe I'm crazy, but the black bars seem smaller than they used to. I've watched soooo many movies at 2.35:1 that I'd like to think my intuition is correct. And actually, I'm almost sure my intuition is correct because the the bottom of the menu on Miami Vice is cropped off a little bit by the bottom of the TV. In fact on that main menu is where that "slightly zoomed in" effect is most noticeable, because the menu option are all extremely close to being off the edges of the display, and like I said, the bottom menu IS cut off a little bit.


As for Lady in the Water, I did some more tests and couldn't find any differences between the HD and SD versions on the disc, which leads me to believe it could be an issue with using the 360 as a DVD player. I used to have a separate Philips DVD player, and never noticed anything that seemed off.


I can't find any other display settings on the 360 dashboard outside of 480p/720p/1080i, but I'll keep researching and see if there are some more setup or configuration options I can change to address the issue. Otherwise, I'm sure I'll adjust to feeling "slightly zoomed in" before too long.


Thanks for the help so far!

 

[TheEconoclast]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Bulldog3777 /forum/post/0


I have a Sony KDF-E42a10 and I get the black bars just as I should. 2.35 and 1.85 will both have bars. 2.35 will have more black bar than 1.85. A 1.78 would be no black bars. So if you see no black bars, something is wrong.

Yeah, Lady in the Water @ 1.85:1 definitely has no black bars and even feels a little more "zoomed in" than that.


Miami Vice @ 2.35:1 has black bars, but like I mentioned above, they seem smaller than I remember them. Of course, I could just be crazy!

 

[TheEconoclast]

And the answer is... I'm not crazy! Watching The Black Dahlia (same as Miami Vice) tonight, and I did a kind of crude test of measuring the screen with a measuring tape.


My TV is 20 3/8 x 36 1/4, for an aspect ratio of exactly 16:9 (1.78:1)

The picture measures 16 3/8 x 36 1/4 for an aspect ratio of 2.21:1 where it should be 2.35:1


So stuff is definitely getting cut off. The problem exists for both HD DVD and SD. Now to figure out why...

 

[GlennRW]

Strange stuff, mysterious thread.

Maybe adyu can aid you in that once again since he does own the same display.

 

[TheEconoclast]

I'm almost positive it's this "overscan" thing now. I've read a bit about it now.


My TV has an Overscan setting for "-1", "Normal", and "+1". I set it to "-1" and it got a little better. It still seems to overscan a bit, a bit more than the old DVD player used to. Anyone know if the Xbox 360 does its own overscanning?

 

[JOHNnDENVER]

Don't worry, be happy..... Overscan while a seemingly odd thing, generally will not detract from the presentation.