Aspect Ratios

[Aztech]

I recently got a 50" plasma and a ps3, among other things. Anyway, I am playing some "widescreen" DVDs and yet there are still horizontal bars on top and bottom, i.e. the movie is not filling the whole screen. I've used the "Aspect" button on my TV remote, but I can't get the picture to fill the screen. And I don't want zoom or anything like that, I want it to look right and fit right. What gives?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

2.35:1 movies are not fitting your 1.78:1 screen because they are wider than 16x9 = Normal.

If these are 1.85:1 / 1.78:1 DVDs that are not fitting right, then there's a problem.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2086756&enterthread=y

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Aztech
I recently got a 50" plasma and a ps3, among other things. Anyway, I am playing some "widescreen" DVDs and yet there are still horizontal bars on top and bottom, i.e. the movie is not filling the whole screen. I've used the "Aspect" button on my TV remote, but I can't get the picture to fill the screen. And I don't want zoom or anything like that, I want it to look right and fit right. What gives?

Different movies have different aspect ratios. Your TV is 16x9 (or 1.78:1), so movies with that aspect ratio will take up the whole screen. Movies that are 2.35:1 or some other aspect ratio will have bars above and below because they were intended to be "wider" than your widescreen TV is. Some movies, and any non-HD TV show, are in the older 4:3 aspect ratio, so your widescreen TV will display them with the black bars on the sides of the screen.

If you'll notice when you goto a movie theater, there are curtains on either side of the screen that can make the screen wider or narrower, which allows them to take up the entire visible screen no matter what the aspect ratio of the movie is.

 

[JAG87]

didn't we have this discussion already?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: JAG87
didn't we have this discussion already?

Linked to it