Re: Letterbox is annoying, even on new 61" TV!

Alan F wrote:
James Egan wrote:
I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture would use the entire screen?
Also, I tried playing a James Taylor HD-DVD, and it hung
repeatedly. I had read about this problem in the reviews
of this movie in a review, but chalked it up to an
inexperienced user.


Overall though, I'm very happy and amazed by the picture!

Was the picture height about 75% of the screen height? If it was half,
then there is something wrong. The movie was a cinemascope movie meaning
it has an Original Aspect Ratio (OAR) of 2.35 to 1 (or 2.40 to 1). For a
16:9 (1.78:1) screen, the height of the picture should be 1.77/2.35=
0.75 of the screen. This is good because you are seeing the movie the
way it was presented in the theater with no cropping.

If you had a regular DVD player, I would suspect that you had it set
to a 4:3 TV. This is a common mistake for people who get wide screen
16:9 TVs to connect them to the DVD player, but not change the settings
to 16:9 output in the DVD player. But you have an XBox HD-DVD player so
I would have thought it was fixed to display a 16:9 screen. I would
double check the settings for the XBox just to be sure.

Most modern movies are made in two aspect ratios: 1.85:1 and 2.35:1.
The 1.85:1 movies are close enough to the 1.78:1 screen, that they
cropped the picture slightly or leave a thin bar at the bottom when
transferring it to a DVD or HD video. The 2.35:1 movies should be
letterboxed if the picture is not cropped or are sometimes shot "open
matte" which I will leave you to google. Unfortunately some premium
cable channels - HBO-HD is often guilty of this - will crop the 2.35:1
picture for the the 16:9 screen. Really messes up some movies.

Other OARs for film are 1.37:1 (used up to the 1950s), 1.66:1, 2.0:1,
2.20:1, and superwide 2.76:1 (used famously for Ben Hur). In a proper
presentation, these will be shown pillarboxed or letterboxed on the HD
TV. But you will be seeing the movie as it was presented in the theater.

Alan F



Alan,

Your reply was the most cogent of all in explaining aspect ratios (I have to admit I had no idea that there were several "wide screen" aspect ratios available to directors), so I hope you don't mind my jumping in and asking a question

My question relates to viewing HDTVs in the stores. They always seem to be distorted, much more elongated than normal. I assume it is because the program source is NOT one of the wide screen aspect ratios, and the store sets up the TV to fill the screen horizontally but leaving black bars above and below the picture. So my question is can most (all?) HDTVs be set up such that when a SD program is being watched the bars are on each side and the SD aspect ratio (I assume 4:3) is displayed? I hope so. The elongated distortion distracts from the program. Thanks for any information you might have.

David Azose
drazose@xxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Letterbox is annoying, even on new 61" TV!
    ... I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, ... about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. ... If you had a regular DVD player, I would suspect that you had it set ... But you have an XBox HD-DVD player so ...
    (alt.tv.tech.hdtv)
  • Re: Keep the same frame size as source video.
    ... You can only choose between aspect ratios of 4:3 and 16:9 in the MM2 ... that will be the size of the saved movie in WMV format. ... The issue is then with the player you use to view it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker)
  • RE: Can image of the Media Player be somehow saved on your computer?
    ... Import the movie to the Movie Maker, ... run it on the preview screen and hold the frame you want to save. ... Click the "Take Picture" button below the Preview screen and save the picture. ... save an image from a movie that is played on my Media Player 11. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)
  • Aspect Ratio
    ... Now that camcorders have 4x3 and 16x9 options and all editing software has ... When I play back a 16X9 movie I have edited the player jumps between aspect ... ratios at every shot change. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)
  • Re: Ending movie
    ... I have the impression that it tends to be a setting on the player rather than the movie itself. ... An option is to lengthen the last picture until everyone would be heartily sick of it .....say ten minutes? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker)