What's the deal with widescreen?

 

Bronze Member
Username: Smokey847

Post Number: 45
Registered: Apr-05
I don't understand it. Why buy or rent a widescreen DVD? Why would you just want to utilize half of your widescreen television? Could someone please elaborate?
 

Silver Member
Username: Hd_fanatic

Boise, ID

Post Number: 192
Registered: May-05
Wide-screen DVD's that are 1.78:1 will utilize all of a 16:9 wide-screen television with no bars. Some "widescreen" discs are 2.35:1 which is animorphic wide-screen, and on these discs, small bars on the top and bottom are present.

Some wide-screen televisions have a zoom feature that gets rid of the bars, but at the cost of losing some of the content from the sides.
 

Gold Member
Username: Samijubal

Post Number: 3688
Registered: Jul-04
Any widescreen DVD can be anamorphic. It's not about aspect ratio, it's the encoding of the disc. Anamorphic DVDs raise the resolution on HDTVs, the picture is clearly better. It makes no difference on 4x3 TVs. There's your reason for buying or renting widescreen DVDs. Almost all new DVDs are anamorphic.

http://gregl.net/videophile/anamorphic.htm
 

Bronze Member
Username: Smokey847

Post Number: 46
Registered: Apr-05
Thanks for clearing things up. So, it's not about the aspect ratio, but more-so about picture quality. Before I had a widescreen television, I was always convinced that the widescreen DVDs would fill up the whole screen on the TV, so I was confused. Thanks for help, guys!
 

Gold Member
Username: Samijubal

Post Number: 3697
Registered: Jul-04
Most DVD players have a zoom that will get rid of the black bars if you don't want to watch discs with them. Some TVs will zoom 2.35:1 movies to full screen too. Either way you're going to get bars on a 2.35:1 movie, if it's widescreen, they will be top and bottom, if it's 1.33:1 (4x3) you'll have bars on the sides.

Like HD said, 1:78:1 DVDs will fill the screen. 1.85:1 discs may have a little bit of bars or they may not depending on how much overscan the TV has. 2:35:1 movies will have pretty big bars.
« Previous Thread Next Thread »



Main Forums

Today's Posts

Forum Help

Follow Us