Screen size right for HDTV, wrong for DVD! (1 Viewer)

[EricThorsen]

I installed a projector for my cable HD box and ran my DVD to it as well, via Component video. The problem I have is that the HD looks great, and fills up the entire screen. Any Non-HD signal through cable fills the middle of the screen, with two black boxes on the edges.
So far, no problem.
The problem is when I run a DVD-widescreen through the system. It has the 16:9 aspect ratio, but it is formatted to fit within the larger 4:3 ratio, which winds up on my screen with about 2 feet of space around the entire image.
It appears to me that the HD signal is truly 1080, while the DVD signal is a subset of the 480 size.
Can anybody help me with this?

Here is an image - be sure you are looking in monotype font to appreciate:

+--------------------------------+
| HD image Size |
| |===================| |
| | | |
| | DVD Image size | |
| | | |
| |===================| |
| | Non-HD Cable Img | |
+--------------------------------+

THanks for any help!
best regards,
Eric

 

[NickSo]

use the [ code ] [/ code ] tags (no spaces) to display your ASCIi properly.

Does this happen with some widescreen DVDs or ALL DVDs? It sounds like a typical problem with non-anamorphic DVDs (ie not 'enhaned for widescreen TV' DVDs)

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Some projectors have a mode called natural ... where they show the DVD pixel for pixel and no scaling. A 720x480 pixel array fits into this image area you are drawing ...

Regards

 

[EricThorsen]

This is for all DVDs. And I have checked the configuration settings on my DVD player (SONY dvp-s530d) and my projector (Viewsonic PJ551). I cannot find any setting to configure as 'Natural'
I think I need to learn more about the pixel arrangments. So far I only know that the standard 4:3 TV signal is 480, and teh HD is 1080. I'm afraid that by setting the size of my screen around the HD 1080 size, I will have this problem until I can find a DVD player that can "enlarge" the image.
What happens on a plasma screen? Do both the HD image AND a wide-screen DVD image fill the 16:9 size?
Thanks again for any help!
Best regards,
eric

 

[Mort Corey]

On my plasma display, HD input (depending on the source as some is broadcast 4:3) fills the display completely and anomorphic widescreen DVD's show very small black bars on the top and bottom. (If I understand your question)

Mort

 

[RandyMathis]

It sounds like your DVD player is set up for 4X3.