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Screen formatting of movies on 16x9 aspect ratio TV's

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Originally posted by: PurdueRy
ah but this is not a comparison of 720p vs 1080p. Because we're talking about whether or not the 16:9 transfer you saw was either a zoomed in blu-ray transfer or a new cropped 1080p transfer.
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Excuse me but you were the one who introduced the comment below:

People have a hard enough time telling 1080p from 720p. This is especially true give that most display screens in store are 50" or smaller.
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To which responded to. Now you are implying I'm getting off topic? Don't toss in an editorial comment and then accuse me of getting off the subject if my experience was different - namely that I can tell the difference between 720P and 1080P displays below 50-inches (certainly 46-inches). I'm happy to get back to the original topic now. 😉

If it was a zoomed in blu-ray transfer you would have lost about 24% of the resolution to the black bars on top and bottom resulting in a end result of a 821p or so image. So now we're trying to guess whether you were seeing a 1080p image which was a new transfer taken from the film source at 16:9, or a cropped blu-ray transfer. I doubt you would notice the difference between 821p and 1080p, especially in a film transfer like Pirates.
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If your talking about my viewing of the Samsung auto motion demo of Pirates, I only mentioned it as an example of a movie which appeared to be a good demonstration of a clean, full rez, high def picture. Which is why it looked really good. I tend to think that demo was not zoomed in or it probably would have had some picture degredation. Anyway, it would be kind of silly for a demo of high quality picture to be ham strung by picture degredation - thus somewhat defeating the purpose of the demo.

So these arguments of 720P vs 1080P or what I saw as a demo seem to be a distraction from the original intent of this post, which was to find out what the deal was with the source media which display movie pictures with an aspect ratio that is wider than the 16x9 typical LCD TV. As it is, that question seemed to have been answered above and now we are in a mode of talking about other things I guess. Whatever.
 
Originally posted by: techwanabe
I can easily see the graininess of 720P TV's when I look at them at BB, and compare them to 1080P. I see you and others commenting the people can't tell them apart and think to myself WTF? I can see it plainly and that has been the major motivation for me to hold out and get 1080P. Obviously as you get farther away, it becomes harder to see but at 6 feet I can see the grainy picture.
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Going to BB and picking the best-looking TV at the store will not result in the best-looking TV in your livingroom. For one all the TV's are likely in "torch" mode, which means super-high brightness and contrast. This is done for a few reasons. One is to compete with the really bright lights at the store. Another is that a perfectly calibrated TV next to a torch-mode TV will look dim and almost dingy. "Torch" mode will make the colors look brighter and more vibrant, yet at the expense of black levels and shadow detail and the colors will be VERY inaccurate.

I'm not sure what it is about the BB feed, but it seems to look like total crap on 720p TVs. I compared the Pioneer 5080 to the 5010 and could see graininess on the 5080 at 12 feet away that wasn't on the 5010! I knew that this must have had to do with the BB feed, because of all the excellent reviews on the 5080 and all of the viewing-distance charts that state most can't notice ANY difference between 720p and 1080p at more than 10 feet away. BB had an awesome sale (err...pricing mistake) on the 5080, which made it about 60% of the price of the 5010, so I just bought one hoping that the dozens of glowing professional reviews would not let me down. It was a very good decision as the TV looks absolutely incredible after getting it home, tweaking the settings, dimming the room, and giving it a good feed (as opposed to the BB crap). I can honestly say that I don't see any graininess until I get about 6 feet away from the set. I sit 8-9 feet, so that's not an issue at all.

Do you sit 6 feet from your TV? If not, then why does it matter if you can notice the difference from that distance? If you do, then I see why you bought a 1080p TV. I would've done the same at that close of a viewing distance.
 
Originally posted by: kalrith
Originally posted by: techwanabe
I can easily see the graininess of 720P TV's when I look at them at BB, and compare them to 1080P. I see you and others commenting the people can't tell them apart and think to myself WTF? I can see it plainly and that has been the major motivation for me to hold out and get 1080P. Obviously as you get farther away, it becomes harder to see but at 6 feet I can see the grainy picture.
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I'm not sure what it is about the BB feed, but it seems to look like total crap on 720p TVs.
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I don't think the feed is worse for the 780P vs 1080P but I don't know. I do know I can see the graininess of the picture on 720P. Does it look like crap? No. But I can see it and I prefer a sharper picture. When LCD's first started hitting the stores large numbers a few years ago, it seemed like most or all of them were extreemly grainy looking so I was not at all interested in jumping in at that point, not to mention the 4 or 5 thousand dollar price tags.

the viewing-distance charts that state most can't notice ANY difference between 720p and 1080p at more than 10 feet away.
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Yes, that makes sense.

you sit 6 feet from your TV? If not, then why does it matter if you can notice the difference from that distance? If you do, then I see why you bought a 1080p TV. I would've done the same at that close of a viewing distance.
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I sit pretty close to 6 feet, maybe around 7. My living room is narrow and wide so.
 
If you can tell the difference between 720 and 1080 on a 46" display, then I don't think you'll find a zoomed 2.40:1 picture to look very good. Especially if you're viewing it at 6' on a large set (56" or more).
 
Originally posted by: biggestmuff
If you can tell the difference between 720 and 1080 on a 46" display, then I don't think you'll find a zoomed 2.40:1 picture to look very good. Especially if you're viewing it at 6' on a large set (56" or more).
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Which is more or less why I was asking about it in the first place.

That being said, I also know there will be sources which don't take full advantage of high qualtiy 1080P TV's like some cable sources as I've been learning and non HD channels etc etc.

What I would like to do is watch some HD movies and enjoy them at their best possible resolution - and it sounds like buying 16x9 aspect ratio HD movies is the way to go.
 
Originally posted by: techwanabe
Originally posted by: biggestmuff
If you can tell the difference between 720 and 1080 on a 46" display, then I don't think you'll find a zoomed 2.40:1 picture to look very good. Especially if you're viewing it at 6' on a large set (56" or more).
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Which is more or less why I was asking about it in the first place.

That being said, I also know there will be sources which don't take full advantage of high qualtiy 1080P TV's like some cable sources as I've been learning and non HD channels etc etc.

What I would like to do is watch some HD movies and enjoy them at their best possible resolution - and it sounds like buying 16x9 aspect ratio HD movies is the way to go.
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Thats exactly what I tried to point out 100 posts ago
 
Originally posted by: Baked
Full-Screen DVDs are made for people like the OP.
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agreed.

I don't want the black bars!!!!

OP:

The graininess and overall 'doesn't look like a window' on the 720 displays when you view them is because of scaling.

I appreciate your visual acuity to notice it but to demand no black bars in the name of resolution when the source doesn't have it is just wrong.
 
'Tis a mental illness whereby the sufferer is convinced something is missing and yet in an attempt to pacify their anxiety they actually do discard content. 😕
 
Originally posted by: Baked
Full-Screen DVDs are made for people like the OP.
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So what is the conventional aspect ratio of a standard full screen DVD movie? Seems wide screen isn't the way to go, even with 16x9 displays. I was probably naive when I first purchased some of my DVD's thinking that wide screen would be the ideal format if one was going to get a wide screen (16x9) TV in the future.

Seems now, in hind sight, that wide screen movie DVD's may not have an ideal common home TV solution? ie, there aren't any TV's that can really display a wide screen DVD movie and not have black bars, since they match the film aspect ratio which is wider and narrower than 16x9. If that is the case, it sounds like I should ALWAYS avoid wide screen format DVD's or Blu Ray discs in the future since I prefer not to have black bars on my 16x9 screen.

The good news for me is that I've purchase very few movies so far and going forward can now make informed purchases.
 
Originally posted by: techwanabe
Originally posted by: Baked
Full-Screen DVDs are made for people like the OP.
Click to expand...

So what is the conventional aspect ratio of a standard full screen DVD movie? Seems wide screen isn't the way to go, even with 16x9 displays. I was probably naive when I first purchased some of my DVD's thinking that wide screen would be the ideal format if one was going to get a wide screen (16x9) TV in the future.

Seems now, in hind sight, that wide screen movie DVD's may not have an ideal common home TV solution? ie, there aren't any TV's that can really display a wide screen DVD movie and not have black bars, since they match the film aspect ratio which is wider and narrower than 16x9. If that is the case, it sounds like I should ALWAYS avoid wide screen format DVD's or Blu Ray discs in the future since I prefer not to have black bars on my 16x9 screen.

The good news for me is that I've purchase very few movies so far and going forward can now make informed purchases.
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If you really think that watching full-screen movies (i.e. movies hacked to pieces to fit on a 4:3 screen) will result in no black bars on your 16x9 screen, then you're clueless. I recommend starting at square one and reading all the info you can on avsforum, CNET, wikipedia, etc. before posting any more questions that make you look even more clueless.

/thread
 
Originally posted by: techwanabe
Originally posted by: Baked
Full-Screen DVDs are made for people like the OP.
Click to expand...

So what is the conventional aspect ratio of a standard full screen DVD movie? Seems wide screen isn't the way to go, even with 16x9 displays. I was probably naive when I first purchased some of my DVD's thinking that wide screen would be the ideal format if one was going to get a wide screen (16x9) TV in the future.

Seems now, in hind sight, that wide screen movie DVD's may not have an ideal common home TV solution? ie, there aren't any TV's that can really display a wide screen DVD movie and not have black bars, since they match the film aspect ratio which is wider and narrower than 16x9. If that is the case, it sounds like I should ALWAYS avoid wide screen format DVD's or Blu Ray discs in the future since I prefer not to have black bars on my 16x9 screen.

The good news for me is that I've purchase very few movies so far and going forward can now make informed purchases.
Click to expand...

Actually, with a projector and masking system, you can have full frame goodness no matter what the aspect ratio your source is.
 
Theaters never use all of the available screen area either. That must drive the OP bonkers.

I suggest investing in blinders -you know, like horsies are fitted with to limit their field of view for the calming effect that is in it. Alternatively, just stop watching movies if you cannot enjoy them.
 
This really made my day. I came home from work and found 3 posts of insults.

Thanks to those who helped me learn something about all of this.
 
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