Why is my widescreen DVD being treated as Full Screen all of a sudden?

TheCrackedJack

Senior member
Jul 13, 2002
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So I popped in The Hunt for Red October since I hadn't watched it in a while and I see that it's pillarboxed on my widescreen tv and playing in widescreen inside that box! What the hell, it plays fine on my pc and on my previous dvd player. All the other widescreen titles I've played were fine, and of course my player is set to 16:9. Why would this one being telling it that its fullscreen when it's clearly not?
 

TheCrackedJack

Senior member
Jul 13, 2002
309
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Originally posted by: Mike
What TV do you have?

Hah, I just figured out it's the DVD at fault. I popped it in my PC to play and guess what...the same thing happens. I certainly don't remember it happening before. Why the hell would the disc be labled widescreen, only to be pillarboxed and then play in widescreen inside the box? Does anyone else have the initial release of the Hunt for Red October? Please note that I haven't watched this DVD in years, so maybe my memories off.
 

TheCrackedJack

Senior member
Jul 13, 2002
309
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Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea old sh*t release. its a 4:3 video with black bars. its not animorphic.

Yep, thank you sir. I checked some old reviews of the disc to see that it was indeed non anamorphic. I guess it shows that I haven't watched it in awhile huh?
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
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While this doesn't seem to be your issue, I've seen a few older DVD's that had 4:3 on one side, and 16:9 on the other...
 

funboy6942

Lifer
Nov 13, 2001
15,362
416
126
I have come into this a few times now owning a widescreen tv is some older dvd's I own that are supposed to be widescreen are 4:3 widescreen. Meanging its a Widescreen if played on a 4:3 tv once on a widescreen it has black bars all around it on all 4 sides and when I use Ifo edit it shows up as 4:3 and not 16:9.

Old-10 years plus. Phenomonon (sp its early and my coffee is still hot) thats comes to mind cus it was the first movie I wanted to watch on the big screen and then got tottaly dissaponted finding that out.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
57,240
19,141
146
The way to deal with a non-anamorphic DVD on a 16:9 TV (besides trashing it) is to use your TV's 4:3 zoom mode. This will fill the screen properly. But the resolution and thus picture quality will be much lower than an anamorphic DVD.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
yup, zoom zoom ickiness

as for the dvds with different aspect ratios on both sides, those also suck. best to have more bitrate for the movie, those flippers are almost never double layer on each side.
 

funboy6942

Lifer
Nov 13, 2001
15,362
416
126
Originally posted by: Amused
The way to deal with a non-anamorphic DVD on a 16:9 TV (besides trashing it) is to use your TV's 4:3 zoom mode. This will fill the screen properly. But the resolution and thus picture quality will be much lower than an anamorphic DVD.


Yeah I tried that and every possable aspect ratio my ATI card woudl do and I just coulndtget the picture right. Somethign was off with the hor or vert being to big or two small and it just come down to dealing with it because the picture being way off was worse then the black bars all around the image or using the zoom and res being way off and kinda fuzzy.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
57,240
19,141
146
Originally posted by: funboy42
Originally posted by: Amused
The way to deal with a non-anamorphic DVD on a 16:9 TV (besides trashing it) is to use your TV's 4:3 zoom mode. This will fill the screen properly. But the resolution and thus picture quality will be much lower than an anamorphic DVD.


Yeah I tried that and every possable aspect ratio my ATI card woudl do and I just coulndtget the picture right. Somethign was off with the hor or vert being to big or two small and it just come down to dealing with it because the picture being way off was worse then the black bars all around the image or using the zoom and res being way off and kinda fuzzy.

Well, for $10 you can get a newer anamophic copy of Hunt for Red October:

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.a...4915025&item_id=471169&searchID=308282
 

funboy6942

Lifer
Nov 13, 2001
15,362
416
126
OMG ONLY ONE LEFT! WHERESMYCREDITCARDFORINEEDITASAPRIGHTAWAYBBQWTFNEEDTOGETITBEFOREANYONEELSEDOES!
:p