Do you know people that stretch movies to fit their whole screen?

[theprodigalrebel]

Around a month back, I was watching Garden State (a 2.40:1 movie) on my 4:3 monitor. This guy (friend's cousin) was at my place and he asked me, "Why do you use WMP? GOM Player is better." I asked him, "Why is that? MPC/WMP+ffdshow is the geek-standard."

He said, "GOM has this feature that lets you stretch the image to fill the whole screen so you don't get these black bars." This is the point where I am perplexed. I told him ffdshow allowed me to do the same and just for kicks, scaled the image to my monitor's aspect.

I asked him, "Is this right?" He says, "Yeah."

He honestly saw nothing wrong with the image.

Ed: Fixed tense.

 

[IronWing]

Anything that makes Americans look skinnier is good.

 

[shabby]

Heh i know a couple people that do that, i simply dont watch movies at their place thats all.

 

[Lonyo]

I don't stretch to mess with the aspect ratio, but sometimes I use custom pan and scan so things like 2.35:1 films take up more space on my 16:10 monitor. I miss out a bit on the sides, but keep the AR the same.
Normally I put it somewhere between 16:9 and 2.35/4:1 so I still have black bars, but less of them.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

@ Lonyo
That's reasonable. You are missing out some details on the side but at least what you see looks correct.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I can hardly stand watching movies at all at most people's houses now even if aspect ratio is right

 

[xSauronx]

my mother would rather have the movie stretched as she hates the "black bars"
my dad has a widescreen tv, and either zooms or stretches all tv shows and movies he watches.

i dont care for it, but at the same time, when watching a widescreen dvd on his tv (a samsung 46" dlp) ....theres a *huge* amount of black space above and below the film

 

[nageov3t]

I don't even notice the black bars anymore (at least not horizontal black bars... I find vertical bars mildly annoying when I'm watching tv on my widescreen)

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: loki8481
I don't even notice the black bars anymore (at least not horizontal black bars... I find vertical bars mildly annoying when I'm watching tv on my widescreen)

i only notice them if they take up a huge portion of the screen. i prefer widescreen dvds over regular, though, thats for sure

 

[smack Down]

What really pisses me off is a lot of the "HD Channels" comcast has are stretched versions of pan and scan. So not only do you not get to see the whole movie you get it in a messed up aspect ratio.

 

[IGBT]

..tried it. looks like crap.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I can hardly stand watching movies at all at most people's houses now even if aspect ratio is right

I feel the same way about movie theaters. There aren't any flickrs on my screen at home, my seats are more comfortable, the food is better, and no crowds or waiting in line. Netflix ftw!

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I hate people that do that. Whenever I go to a house and watch on a TV or a computer and it's stretched. I change it.

 

[frostedflakes]

Yeah black bars don't really bug me, or at least they don't bug me nearly as much as stretched and distorted images.

Computer has a 5:4 monitor, but it's also hooked up to my LCD HDTV, so 4:3 content I watch on my PC monitor, and widescreen content I drag onto the HDTV. Best of both worlds.

 

[Jeff7]

I am used to the 4:3 aspect ratio. After getting my 16:10 monitor, I called LG to ask about how to get rid of the nonexistant not-bars past the top and bottom of my screen. They said it's a feature of widescreens, just as "black bars" are on 4:3 screens which display widescreen video.
"Well yeah, those are black bars. But mine aren't. They're actually off the screen."
The CSR pretended to not understand, and hung up on me.






I don't get why people find the "black bars" distracting. If you get a widescreen monitor, the black bars aren't displayed at all - their border is delineated instead by the edge of the screen, and no sane person complains about that sort of thing.

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I can hardly stand watching movies at all at most people's houses now even if aspect ratio is right

I feel the same way about movie theaters. There aren't any flickrs on my screen at home, my seats are more comfortable, the food is better, and no crowds or waiting in line. Netflix ftw!

Some people I know locally think I'm really really weird for not liking movie theaters. Maybe I've not visited the ones that inject heroin automatically, but I just don't care for theaters. No pause/rewind, there's no private bathroom, only public restrooms, the food is expensive, it's really goddamn loud, there are noisy idiots in the audience, the chairs usually suck, and they've got the theater jam-packed with seats to maximize profits, at the expense of personal space. Plus, the low framerate (23.976fps) of movies is really noticeable on a big screen, especially on CG effects where the makers decided not to use motion-blur effects.

 

[Ika]

The stretched aspect ratio makes me nuts.

 

[ForumMaster]

yeah my friend does unfortunately. although only sometimes streching a 16:9 to 16:10. drives me nuts. i watch 720p video on my 17" LCD how it comes with the black bars. doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Akhen]

I actually quite enjoy the top and bottom black bars its the left and right black bars that I hate when i have to watch 4:3 ratio content on a widescreen.
I end up doing just like Lonyo and zoom in a bit while keep the correct aspect ratio.

 

[BlackTigers]

When they're the obnoxiously large black bars, I'll do a combo of cropping the picture down and stretching it a little bit. Makes it more enjoyable on my 17" monitor, and don't really care if the pic is distorted a little bit. I don't stretch all the way to the top, but just so that half my screen isn't black bars.

 

[oogabooga]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I can hardly stand watching movies at all at most people's houses now even if aspect ratio is right

is this your way of declining my invitation to come over and watch movies with me on my 14in laptop screen with my laptop speakers?

 

[Aikouka]

I watch them with the bars... I prefer the natural look and even a slight stretch that distorts the ratio tends to bother me .

Although I donno why you were using WMP... unless it was a WMV .

 

[gamepad]

WTF... That would piss me off if I knew someone did that.

 

[MrPickins]

I stretch every 4:3 source to 16:9 on my hdtv. I have the screen real estate, why let it go to waste?

After a bit you don't notice it much anyway...

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: MrPickins
I stretch every 4:3 source to 16:9 on my hdtv. I have the screen real estate, why let it go to waste?

After a bit you don't notice it much anyway...

I always notice it, of course I don't like black bars either, both way pisses me off so I don't care since I won't like it regardless.

 

[bignateyk]

It doesnt just stretch it uniformly. It stretches the edges more, and leaves the focal point un-stretched. I stretch out 4:3 sources this way. Most of what I watch is HD content or DVD's, so those are just fine.