Page 1 of Anamorphic Aspect Ratio Con

The one big problem with DVD that no one wants to tell you about is the Aspect ratio con.

When you buy a DVD player and a Widescreen television you expect a wonderfull clear picture and great sound, You get all that. Good so far.

But the con is that some DVD films like `Lord of the rings` ends up automatically with massive black area top and bottom.

Now this is great for the film buffs who want to see all the picture, even though it looks panoramic, but for others like myself, I do not mind losing the corners so that the full screen is filled. But is it possible, NO!

Now my DVD player allows you to change from letterbox format to P-Scan (fills screen) format, but the Anamorphic DVD disk automatically overides this manual option and keeps the player in letterbox format.

Also if you use `Zoom 2` on the player, you do fill the screen but it is somewhat distorted.

If you try to change the apect ratio manually on the widescreen TV `User 1 or 2` screen, you still can`t get the black areas to go totally away, as the picture refuses to lose the corners.

So why in this modern age of DVD technology do we not have the option of MANUALLY being able to adjust the screen to give us a full screen picture accepting that we lose a bit of the corners of the film?

I just feel this DVD technology is going backwards rather than fowards.

Cheers Colin Mac

Hi Colin

It`s not a con, but i hear where you`re coming from.

All aspect ratios are listed on the back of the DVD case.

1.85:1 is the same as 16:9 and will fill the widescreen.

2.35:1 will however, leave black bars at the top and bottom. And contrary to the popular mis-conception, Anamorphic does NOT mean it will fill the screen. It may reduce the bars slightly, whilst maintaining the right picture proportions, but will not eliminate them!

Depending on what TV you have, the TV picture ratio controls should still allow you to enlarge the image without too much loss of image.

I have several different ratio settings on mine and it is fine. If I want to fill the screen I can. Anamorphic has nothing to do with this.

Make sure in your TV menu that the ratio screen setting is set to manual and not to automatic `best fit` picture settings, which may automatically change settings depending on the signal it receives.

This item was edited on Sunday, 26th January 2003, 19:29

You could always stick with VHS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

buy a tv with changeable picture settings such as cinema on the toshiba picture frame as this gets rid of bars

Hey Justin99, have you tried the `Lord of the rings` DVD on your toshiba, if you have and it fills the screen with `cinema` setting, ie, no bars, then can you tell me the model/size of that toshiba TV.

I am needing a new TV shortly, so if I can find a TV that sorts this out then I will buy one.

Cheers Colin Mac

This item was edited on Sunday, 26th January 2003, 21:26

Any modern day widescreen will have a multitude of picture size settings. But there are more IMPORTANT items about the TV you should be interested in than its aspect settings, especially when shelling out several hundred notes!

Buy yourself some Home Entertainment / What TV & Video mags and do some homework. Buying a new widescreen purely on its aspect settings is not really the way to go!

This item was edited on Sunday, 26th January 2003, 21:47

My main priority is to get a setup (TV/DVD player) that will give me a full screen picture using MANUAL control, irrespective of all the aspect ratio formats available on DVD.

Thats where VHS video tape had the advantage, it always filled the whole of your TV screen, (before widescreen appeared).

Some like the black bars top and bottom, I dont, I am happy to lose the edges as long as I get a full screen.

Thats why I am looking for a pratical solution, other than going out and buying the VHS version of `Lord of the rings` which loses the advantages of DVD, sound, extras and search.

There must be a lot of other DVD owners who have felt rather let down with this problem.

Cheers Colin Mac.

I`ve never understood this argument, I actually prefer the wider aspect ratio as it is more cinematic and you are seeing the film the way the director intended.
Would you buy a van gogh painting and then chop it into a more suitable shape for your living room?

Basically I want it to look like it does at the cinema.

And the cinema does both 16:9 ratio and the wider 2.35:1 (Sometimes you even see the curtains move wider apart at the cinema for this to happen)

I can see the need for some to want to fill the screen (ie "I paid £1200 for that telly and I`m losing £400 worth of the screen by watching stuff with black bars")

The zoom feature on either the telly or the DVD player is probably the best option. I know our Panasonic telly (and most of the Panasonic range) does customised zoom (bear in mind if you want to get rid of the black bars fully you will stretch the picture making it distorted.)

You would also lose the benefits of anamorphic-ness, such as the greater resolution of the picture.

Basically though a decent zoom feature should allow you to get round this problem, but personally I prefer to see it how it was originally shot. With the lights off and the contrast and brightness set correctly, you won`t even notice the bars, just a wider ratio picture.

Re. Lord of the rings, there will always be a black bar, well at the bottom of the screen at least, because the film has subtitles on the black for the Elvish scenes. (or am I missing the point here?)