TV question...

[GatorHunter]

Bought a 42" LCD for the bedroom. Don't usually "play" DVDs in the bedroom...but the other night, the wife was watching a "Lifetime" movie in the den, so I decided to watch a DVD on the new widescreen in the bedroom. The DVD was widescreen as well, but when the movie was playing, there were still "black-out" areas at the top and bottom of the picture...like when you watch a widescreen dvd on a "square" tv. Seems like if the movie and tv are both widescreen, there wouldn't be any "black-out" areas...any ideas?

[Neo]

Bought a 42" LCD for the bedroom. Don't usually "play" DVDs in the bedroom...but the other night, the wife was watching a "Lifetime" movie in the den, so I decided to watch a DVD on the new widescreen in the bedroom. The DVD was widescreen as well, but when the movie was playing, there were still "black-out" areas at the top and bottom of the picture...like when you watch a widescreen dvd on a "square" tv. Seems like if the movie and tv are both widescreen, there wouldn't be any "black-out" areas...any ideas?


Okay, heres the lowdown...

Regardless of the DVD, you're going to have some type of black bars no matter what.

The current formats for Widescreen movies are as follows:

Anamorphic
1:75:1
1:79:1
1:85:1
2:35:1
2:39:1
2:40:1

To find out the format of the DVD, it should be located on the back cover towards the bottom near the rating and length.

All HDTV's (WS) are in the 1:85:1 format. Because there isn't a universal format for movie studios, the only widescreen movies that you can watch without the black bars is 1:75:1 to 1:85:1. Any higher than "85" and you will experience the black bar sensation. That's just how the cookie crumbles my friend. One last thing, it costs movie studios 3X as much money to convert a movie to "P&S" aka "Standard" format than just to leave it in a widescreen format. The industry is slowly phasing out the "Altered" format a little at a time.

BTW: I will only buy WS format movies. I can't stand the "Pan & Scan" AKA "Standard" format. It drives me nuts! I like watching a movie in it's original format the way the director wanted it to be seen. :thumpsup:

[Neo]

One last thing, if you really want the full effect, go out and get you an upconversion DVD player. (HDMI)

Most HDMI DVD players will upscale standard DVD's to 720p. That's a big jump from standard analog signal. You will notice a difference in the picture and sound.

[Cianne]

All HDMI stuff is so expensive. Worth it, but expensive.