Widescreen TV Ratio Aspects (1 Viewer)

[Dave McQueen]

Hi

Have a Widescreen TV and am interested what aspects people here have their TV's on when watching DVD's(typically 2:35)

My Tv has 6 aspects.

2 i don't use at all for DVD which is 14:9 and 4:3.
But i am a little confused as to what aspect to use out of the remaining 4.

16:9
Subtitle Zoom
Widescreen
Superwide.

I worry that by using the 16:9 i am perhaps missing somethings however small of the edges and that widescreen and Subtitle modes though perhaps showing the film as it is meant to be has the big black bars on it.So at the moment i seem to prefer Superwide as it fills most of the screen up though having slight Bars.

What do you guys use/recommend?

Thanx

 

[david stark]

I don't have the same make of TV that you have since the options I have a called differently except for 16:9.

Widescreen TV's (all, I don't of any exceptions) have an aspect ratio of 16:9. I suspect that the 16:9 option on your TV will just stretch the 4:3 picture horizontally to 16:9 and so filling the entire screen if the original image was 4:3.

If you have a DVD that is marked as anamorphic or enhanced widescreen then to watch it in the correct ratio you should set your TV to 16:9 no matter what the exact ratio it says on the box. If you have a DVD that is 2.35:1 and you watch it in 16:9 you will have black bars top and bottom of your screen since physically your screen size ratio is different to the ratio of the film. If you choose any mode that makes a 2.35:1 film fill the entire screen then one of two (or a mix of both) things will be happening.

1) your tv has stretched the picture horizontally and then zoomed in so that there are no black bars, but you will be missing some of the picture from the sides.

2) your tv has stretched horizontally and vertically so it fills the entire screen. You will not lose any of the picture, but the image on the screen has been incorrectly stretched vertically so faces will appear to be long.

Personally I hate watching images that have been stretched when they shouldn't have been (note: on anamorphic discs the image should be stretched horizontally) so when watching widescreen that are non 16:9 I always watch them with black bars top and bottom so I see the whole picture and no distortions.

 

[Scott McVicker]

Well I have a panasonic wide screen and I believe I only have:

-16x9
-I have a zoom feature off of the 16x9
-I have "just" feature which I use when watching regular TV. (More distortion near the edges than in the middle)
- Normal (which has black bars on the sides for 4x3 tv shows)

I watch movies in the 16x9, and the width of the bars just varies do to the director's preferred shooting method.

 

[Allan Jayne]

My 16:9 TV has a "subtitle" mode that squishes the bottom half of the 16:9 picture so fixed subtitles that are outside the 16:9 portion of a non-anamorphic letterbox DVD can be seen. Depending on how the subtitles were put on, they may still not be fully visible.

Otherwise you have to use 4:3 mode which, on a 16:9 TV will have black on top and on both sides.

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