Page 1 of Aspect ratios confusion - help

Hi

I have three units, all of which have their own aspect ratio settings. My question is: what are the ideal settings to achieve a true broadcast picture? This is particularly important for my DVD recordings because I`m not sure if the programmes I`m recording are in their true framings.

I have:

A Nokia Mediamaster Freeview box with the following aspect options: normal (4:3) full screen, normal (4:3) letterbox, and widescreen.

A Panasonic E55 DVD recorder with these options: 16:9 Wide TV, 4:3, and Letterbox.

A Lodos 28" widescreen television with: 4:3, Auto, 16:9, 14:9, Cine, and subtitles.

The only unit with an auto function is the Lodos. I think the lack of an auto function on the Nokia is the weakest link in the chain.

Any suggestions for an ideal ratio setup?

Thanks

Right, here goes:

1) Set the Freeview box to widescreen. That way, you`ll get the true broadcast image, no matter what the aspect ratio is. 16:9 pictures will come out as 16:9, and 4:3 will come out as 4:3. (Selecting either of the 4:3 options would result in 16:9 images being cropped or bordered within a 4:3 frame - which you obviously don`t want.)

2) Set the Panasonic recorder to 16:9 wide as well, for the same reasons. Note that this setting only affects playback, not recording.

3) The Lodos - this is a tricky one. Try setting it to 4:3 at first, and playing a 4:3 DVD. You should see the entire 4:3 picture framed between side borders (this is the only "true" way to watch 4:3 material on a widescreen TV - any other mode would result in a cropped or distorted picture).

So far so good. Now play a 16:9 DVD and see if the Lodos automatically switches to widescreen. If it doesn`t, only then should you try using the Auto mode.


If you want an explanation, here`s how it`s supposed to work. The Freeview box and DVD player send a signal along the SCART cable to indicate the aspect ratio of the material. If the aspect is 16:9, a widescreen TV will respond to this signal and switch to 16:9 mode, overriding the existing picture settings. When the aspect goes back to 4:3, the TV will revert to the previous setting.

Unfortunately, it`s not always that simple. Some DVD players and set-top boxes don`t send the correct signals, and some TVs don`t respond to them. The "Auto" mode on widescreen TVs is usually a crude method of determining the aspect ratio, based on picture content alone - it doesn`t always work correctly. The worst case scenario is that you`ll have to switch the Lodos between 4:3 and 16:9 manually.

Mike

This item was edited on Saturday, 19th June 2004, 21:15

Mike

Thanks very much for that. I tried experimenting along the lines you suggested, and it seems to work fine. There seems to be a little cropping at the top and bottom of frame in 16:9 but not too much. I`ve only had the Lodos for a few days and its auto mode seems to be responding to the broadcasted ratios.

BTW the Lodos is a pretty good TV for the offer price (159.99), but white tones seem to flare a bit and, as someone else mentioned on another thread, there is a slight bend at the sides of the picture. I don`t think it`s a fault. More likely a design flaw. I can live with it at these prices!

Cheers again, Mike.

This item was edited on Sunday, 20th June 2004, 23:13

Hey I will post this here in the hope that mike sees it, as he seems to know a hell of a lot :D

When my TV is recieving an anamorphic picture from my dvd player, and i set the tv to 16:9 to stretch the picture to the its correct ratio it appears that the image is not squashed down enough, circles are not quite circular etc. Now I am not sure if this the tv or my dvd player, although the fact that it seems to do a similar thing using the ps2 suggests it is the TV.

Any ideas what is causing this, and if there is anyway to fix it. The TV is only a few months old (Goodmans 28 inch, not a flatscreen).

Thanks for your help,
Phil

Phil,

Firstly I would check your DVD player`s setup menu, making sure it`s set to 16:9 mode and not 4:3 Letterbox. Do the same with the PS2.

If the players are set correctly, it could be a geometry problem with the TV set. Do you have Sky TV, Freeview or similar - if so, how do anamorphic images look from that?

Mike

They are set to 16:9, and are definately coming through in anamorphic. Unfortunately I dont have anything else to try. I did try changing the settings on the dvd player to 4:3 letterbox and using the tv option to just enlargen the picture, and this produced the correct ratio. EG for a 1:85:1 film, using the enlarged 4:3 letterbox there are still strips of black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, (about half a centimetre or so). But when the anamorphic image is just stretched out or even whens its just squished into 4:3, these bars are off the screen.

Thanks again,

TTT for Mike
:D

Is the geometry way out (i.e. circles appear oval), or just slightly off? If it`s just a little bit out, there may be nothing wrong with the TV - budget-priced sets rarely have perfect geometry in all picture modes.

I have a 5 year old Goodmans widescreen myself, and that had pretty poor geometry out of the box. Depending on which model of TV you have, it may be possible to enter a "hidden" service menu and tweak the picture settings. (I had to take the back off mine - which I don`t recommend!)

Incidentally, it`s normal to see no borders with 1.85:1 images. Most TVs are adjusted for overscan, i.e. they have the picture "zoomed in" very slightly to mask the edges.

Mike

Its not way out, you can see its wrong on the THX setup stuff (the circle does appear oval), but when watching a film it is relatively hard to tell.
Its a GOODMANS K28W05


http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/453_119636.html

Thanks again for all your help, it is most appreciated.

This item was edited on Saturday, 26th June 2004, 17:39

The film you are trying to watch isen`t a true croped 4:3? I hate it when they produce DVDs in 4:3 Letterbox and give no option but to watch them with the black bars at top and bottom + sides! Titanic is an example ggrrrhhh!

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Regards, John72.