Different ? About the Squeeze Trick (1 Viewer)

[SteveK]

I will be taking delivery of a Sony 32" Wega soon, which does the squeeze trick (but not automatically). I understand that the 16x9 mode will be used only for anamorphic DVDs. However, I have a couple of other questions about the squeeze mode, and my search of previous discussions about the topic didn't provide an answer.

First, what happens to subtitles? Last night I watched a foreign film and the subtitles were below the image area, and would presumably be cut off in the 16x9 mode. Can the enhanced mode be used with subtitles?

Second, for extras and for non-anamorphic films (of any aspect ratio), would I be better off to set my DVD player to 4x3 mode? How does a non-anamorphic title look when the DVD player is in the 16x9 mode but the television is in the 4x3 mode since the title is not enhanced? It's certainly an easy switch to temporarily go to the 4x3 mode if this would be the better option, particularly for a full-length movie.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. I know the squeeze trick has been repeatedly discussed here, but I don't recall seeing these specific questions discussed.

Steve K.

 

[Allan Jayne]

If the subtitles together with the picture do not fit in a 16:9 shaped space, what you were watching was not (could not be) "anamorphic". The TV should be set to 4:3 mode for all programs and letterbox movies that are not anamorphic.
It is possible for subtitles to be outside the picture and the disk still be anamorphic, for higher aspect ratios such as 2.35:1. It depends on how the producer put the video on the disk. They don't want to put subtitles outside the picture for aspect ratios just slightly larger than 16:9 (such as 2.0:1) since the text would be too close to the bottom and overscan on real 16:9 sets would crop it off. (Putting a 4:3 set in 16:9 mode will not crop subtitles.)
With both aspect ratios available on your TV, leave the DVD player in 16:9 mode all the time and make the aspect ratio selection at the TV. For non-anamorphic disks, what comes out of the player is the same regardless of the player aspect ratio mode.
Other video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Ergin Guney]

Steve,
To add a little to Allan's answer...
The subtitles on a DVD are not part of the original video image that is recorded on the disk. (Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to turn them off or switch languages.) They are added by the player to the outgoing video signal at playback time. The player should be clever enough to add the subtitles to the bottom portion of the video signal regardless of which aspect ratio is being output (otherwise it should be returned to the manufacturer as defective...). Therefore, the fact the subtitles will be at the bottom edge of the picture will still hold true regardless of whether the player is displaying

• a full-screen 4:3 image (so that the subtitles sit over the bottom portion of the 4:3 picture),
• a 4:3 signal that contains a 16:9 image in a letterboxed region in the middle (so that the subtitles sit in the blank black region below the actual image area),
• a full-screen 16:9 image (so that the subtitles again have to sit over the bottom portion of the 16:9 picture),
• or, as Allan mentioned, a 16:9 signal that contains an image of even wider aspect ratio, thereby still leaving some black bars above and below the image (in which case the subtitles may again fit in the black area under the image in the 16:9 video signal, or they may again fully or partially overlay the actual image area itself).

And as for switching between 4:3 and 16:9 when going from the movie to the extras and vice versa, I agree with Allan that you should always leave the DVD player set to 16:9 for the "TV aspect ratio" setting and that it should be the TV's responsibility to switch to the correct display ratio (or for the user to do it manually on the TV if the TV doesn't do it automatically).