MO fan
Group: Members
Posts: 177
Joined: Nov. 2002 |
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Posted: Jan. 11 2003, 18:21 |
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Got an answer from a DVD expert on another forum, why anamorphic DVD's do not fill your Widescreen TV.
Right. Some of this explanation may seem a little technical, but i hope you can understand the general jist of it!
I used 'Ice age' and 'Lord of the rings' DVD as examples...
Answer..
It's like this; a commercial cinema screen is roughly around 21;9 in ratio speak. Some differ, but this is more or less the screen's dimension. Now, when a 2;35;1 aspect 'cinemascope' ratio is shown, it
fits exactly into the entire dimensions of the screen, with no borders -
as you may have noticed when you go to the cinema.
When widescreen tv's were produced they had to come up with a compromise ratio that would benefit both widescreen broadcasts and traditional 4;3 content, hence 16;9 - imagine a 21;9 screen displaying a 4;3 image.The black bars either side of the screen would be as big as the main image!
The other ratio, 1;85;1 or 'open matte' fits the entire screen of your tv, but has usually been tinkered with as the ratio of a wide set is 1;77;1, so a little information may be lost - hence the re-formating of the DVD picture in the conversion process. Notice that in the cinema, they use masking 'curtains', huge black motorised panels that are either at the sides - or in smaller screen cases, above and below the
screen, and retract accordingly so a 1;85;1 movie shows without huge chasm's of blank screen showing!
On DVD the 2;35;1 picture has to be 'zoomed' away so you can see the entire width of the image as the director intended the movie to look, which results in the black bars - which are perfectly normal by the way.
There is NOTHING you can do to change this, and by buying the VHS video copy of Lord of the Rings you are actually MISSING parts of the image, although it fills the TV screen,
and doubtless you are seeing very poor quality images if you are zooming the picture by using the tv's different aspect modes. The reason Ice Age fits the screen is because it was made in the 1;85;1 ratio, hence it fills the screen on your tv. You seem to be getting confused with 'fullscreen' and 'widescreen'. Ice Age IS widescreen, as is LOTR.
Fullscreen from DVD on your tv would display in 4;3 and have black bars down the side of the image - no amount of changing the picture controls will make it widescreen, you're just expanding it to fill the screen.
You WILL get used to it, i guarantee it, i love the look of 2;35;1 cinemascope movies - the scale of the images are superb, 1;85;1 movies are shot thus as the director does not call for many shots with lots of information in the width of the image, and is a fave among animation
producers too, (barring Disneys Atlantis and A Bugs Life and Warners The Iron Giant)).
Just make sure in your dvd players 'set up' menu that the tv out is set to 16;9 Wide, and the tv itself is set to the relevant anamorphic function, (usually wide or auto). and you should get a decent picture, though it will not fill the entire screen.
Well I hope you are all the wizer.
Cheers MO fan 
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