Widescreen and Subtitles (1 Viewer)

[Cathy Suzan]

My husband and i are about to buy a widescreen tv. We have some films with subtitles. The problem is that in some films the subtitles are on the 'black' part of the letterbox. What will happen to the subtitles when we watch on a widescreen tv. Will the subtitles be cut off, or disappear completely?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Depends on the subtitles, the DVD and the TV. If the DVD is anamorphic, your subtitles will be displayed in the viewing area of the film. If the DVD is non-anamorphic, usually the player will display them properly, if they are player generated subs. If the film is non-anamorphic and the subs are burned in (not player generated), you'll need a TV that let's you scroll the screen when it is in the non-anamorphic "zoom" mode. This will allow you to scoll the picture so you have no black bar on top and a big black bar (including the subs) on the bottom. I know my Toshiba does this.

 

[Bryan_Bortz]

I was wondering about this the other night too.

Mainly though, about the subtitles that are shown in custom locations on the image, to subtitle signs and things. I wondered how those were tracked...

I guess those are based on the MPEG2 stream's video dimensions, and the dialog is not, just centered and displayed.

-Owl

 

[SteveLeach]

Even your widescreen will produce letter box bars, depending on the aspect ratio the film was made in.
For example most wide screen TVs are based on the 1.78:1 or (16x9) HDTV format. But many films are made in the 2.35:1 ratio. So when watching a film like star wars, you would still have the letter box bars. After purchasing my widescreen TV I was disappointed to still see them.

hope this helps