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Still have black areas on top/bottom with widecreen? (1 Viewer)

BriaN*F

Auditioning
Joined
Oct 14, 2003
Messages
10
I bought a Panasonic 53 inch HDTV widescreen about 1 year ago and I have always been wondering why...but I guess I have finially decided to ask! WHY IS THERE STILL BLACK AREAS ON TOP AND ON THE BOTTOM OF MY SCREEN WHILE WATCHING DvDS? Even if I zoom in using the TV's zoom function, there are black areas still. I thought that was the purpose of having a "WIDESCREEN" tv; so the entire 16x9 screen was used. The way it is now, I feel like I am using a 4:3 TV and watching a 16:9 DvD but wider?
 

Lew Crippen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 19, 2002
Messages
12,060
Since you have had this for a year, I’m guessing that you have the DVD player set to 16:9 and did not leave it at the 4:3 setting.

Aside from that check the FAQ.
 

Jeff Gatie

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2002
Messages
6,531
First, check to see that the DVD player is set for "16:9" not "4:3". You will find this in the setup menu (usually only available when there is no disk in the player. Second, as covered in the FAQ, some movies are wider than 16:9, such as 2.35:1 and some are narrower, such as academy ratio or 1.33:1. You cannot fit all shapes into a single rectangle, so you get the black bars. The 16:9 ratio is the perfect compromise between 1.33:1 and 2.35:1, so whatever bars are shown are optimally small for all ratios except the very uncommon ones (Ben Hur, etc.).
 

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