Should DVD's take up the full screen on Widescreen (16x9) TV's? (1 Viewer)

Andrew*Jones · Jan 3, 2003

Hello,
I recently purchased a Gateway Plasma TV that is 16X9. I also purchased a JVC progressive scan DVD player (JVC XV-S502SL). When I first watched a DVD (LOTR) it had the black bars on the top and bottom until I used the ZOOM feature on the TV.

I was then playing with the DVD players features and found in the menu that the Display type was set to 4:3. I quickly changed this to 16x9 and now any DVD takes up the full screen without using the ZOOM feature.

So my question is, am I overscanning the DVD by setting the DVD player to 16x9? Or should DVDs take up the full screen on a widescreen TV? Thanks for any help.

Andrew Jones

Chad R · Jan 3, 2003

It all depends on how the movie was shot. LOTR is a 2.35:1 movie, and your TV measures approximately 1.77:1. So on that movie (and others of its ilk) you will still have small black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. You will also get the improved resolution offered to 16:9 sets for weidscreen movies. Zooming in to avoid those thin bars will just devalue that resolution.

Dave Scarpa · Jan 3, 2003

Depending on overscan 1.85 movies may fill the screen with no or almost no letterboxing efect. 2.35 movies will still have the bars albeit lesser than on a 4:3 set. But as the poster said above the anamorphic enhancement will give you a greatly more detailed picture

Jack Briggs · Jan 3, 2003

Think in terms of rectangles and their dimensions. Movies come in all sorts of rectangular shapes, from the almost-square Academy Ratio to the ultra-wide 2.76:1 of Ben-Hur. TVs, on the other hand, come in only two rectangular shapes. Obviously, those two shapes cannot accommodate all the movie shapes. Black bars will therefore always be with us.

JohnnyHK · Jan 3, 2003

Something doesn't make sense here. Your DVD player should definitely be set to 16x9, but if your TV is set to Full (as it should be) you should still see small black bars on the top and bottom for 2.35 movies like LOTR to properly preserve the aspect ratio.
You can educate yourself using the resources found here.

Joe McKeown · Jan 3, 2003

Oh, Thank goodness,
When I saw the topic I was afraid this was going to turn into a pan&scan to 16x9 thread.

I was recently in a Best Buy where someone was looking to buy a 16x9 set so that they could watch DVD's without the black bars. I had never seen a more extreme example of "more money than brains"

Mark Bendiksen · Jan 3, 2003

Should DVD's take up the full screen on Widescreen (16x9) TV's?

To reiterate what's already been said, the correct answer is "sometimes". Taking into account overscan, movies shot in 1.85:1 like E.T. will fill the screen. Movies filmed in wider aspect ratios (2.35:1 and wider) like Braveheart will contain small black areas at the top and bottom. Don't try to adjust your player or your set to make a 2.35 film fill the entire screen. You'll either end up distorting the picture or chopping information off the left and ride sides.
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Patrick McCart · Jan 3, 2003

Let the TV fit the media, not the media to the TV.

Chris Sigua · Jan 3, 2003

So with all the different aspect ratios movies are shot at, why don't movies have black bars when shown in the theater since the screen is one size (i.e., like a widescreen TV)? Are the projectors adjustable based on AR to fill the screen?

Matt DeVillier · Jan 3, 2003

So with all the different aspect ratios movies are shot at, why don't movies have black bars when shown in the theater since the screen is one size (i.e., like a widescreen TV)? Are the projectors adjustable based on AR to fill the screen?

in most theaters, the curtains simply adjust the width of the viewable portion of the screen to fit the proper aspect ratio.

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Greg_S_H · Jan 3, 2003

in most theaters, the curtains simply adjust the width of the viewable portion of the screen to fit the proper aspect ratio.

Yep, and in my local theater, they rarely even bother with the curtains. If you pay attention, you can see the bars. For example, when I saw Signs, they played the Two Towers trailer, and the bars were visible. When I saw the Two Towers, they played an independent short that was shot in approx. 1.33, so it had bars on the side.
Andrew, another thing to make sure is that your TV and DVD player are both set to progressive. I know when I first set up my dad's 16x9 set, I forgot that step and he wasn't too impressed with the results. He was pretty blown away by AOTC when my brain started working again and I got the settings right.

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Seth Paxton · Jan 3, 2003

Let the TV fit the media, not the media to the TV.

I am big, it's the pictures that got small.

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Rob Tomlin · Jan 3, 2003

Oh, Thank goodness,
When I saw the topic I was afraid this was going to turn into a pan&scan to 16x9 thread.

Same here.

Re: the black bars on a 16:9 screen, I had some friends over for New Years eve. We watched Leon: The Professional. My friend was very surprised to see that I still had those "black bars" at the top and bottom of my screen even though I had a 16:9 set. He had a hard time understanding the purpose of widescreen tv's, because he though the whole purpose was to do away with those black bars.

Educating others can be difficult!

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DavidPla · Sep 7, 2005

This question might have been answered a hundred times before but I just recently bought a widescreen TV and I understand completely about Anamorphic DVDs and what they should look like on it. My question is, with films shot 1.37 or 1.33 (ie. Frankenstein, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind ect...), should I set my TV to 4:3 with the black bars on the side of the screen or zoom in on the picture or set the image wide as well? Also if a film IS NOT Anamorphic Widescreen, I assume the film would look TOO stretched on a Widescreen TV... would I again set the TV to 4:3 creating a black box around the image or set it another way? Thanks!

Dwayne · Sep 7, 2005

Andrew, another thing to make sure is that your TV and DVD player are both set to progressive. I know when I first set up my dad's 16x9 set, I forgot that step and he wasn't too impressed with the results. He was pretty blown away by AOTC when my brain started working again and I got the settings right.

I have a progressive Toshiba player and an Infocus 4805 and I have the player outputting an interlaced signal...reason being I was under the impression that letting the processor on the projector would yield better results. Should I set my player to progressive as well?

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SteveJKo · Sep 7, 2005

David, films that were shot 1.37:1 should have the bars on the side for correct viewing.

Now for widescreen DVD's that are NOT enhanced for widescreen TV's it get's a bit tricky. My set, for example has two options, FULL and FILL. The FULL function is the setting for widescreen DVD's that ARE ENHANCED for widescreen tv's. You wouldn't use that for "non-enhanced" DVD's, it would simply make what appeared to be an overly extreme wide movie that starred overly extreme wide people. The FILL function zooms in on the image, and either eliminates or reduces the black bars. This is indeed the function to use with letterboxed but "non-enhanced" DVD's. However, when you zoom into the image for it to properly fill the screen, you lose A LOT of sharpness of the image.

Dwayne · Sep 7, 2005

Andrew, another thing to make sure is that your TV and DVD player are both set to progressive. I know when I first set up my dad's 16x9 set, I forgot that step and he wasn't too impressed with the results. He was pretty blown away by AOTC when my brain started working again and I got the settings right.

I have a progressive Toshiba player and an Infocus 4805 and I have the player outputting an interlaced signal...reason being I was under the impression that letting the processor on the projector do its thing with an interlaced signal would yield better results. Should I set my player to progressive as well?

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Thomas Newton · Sep 7, 2005

TVs, on the other hand, come in only two rectangular shapes. Obviously, those two shapes cannot accommodate all the movie shapes. Black bars will therefore always be with us.

You could build a 2.35:1 TV set with motorized curtains, and a DVD-like player that told it the aspect ratio (and thus how far to open the curtains) for each film.

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Mark Lucas · Sep 7, 2005

Yep, and in my local theater, they rarely even bother with the curtains. If you pay attention, you can see the bars. For example, when I saw Signs, they played the Two Towers trailer, and the bars were visible.

What you saw was a flat letterboxed trailer of a 2.35:1 film. The actual movie prints fills the entire film frame but requires an anamorphic lens for it to be presented properly.

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PeterTHX · Sep 7, 2005

I have a progressive Toshiba player and an Infocus 4805 and I have the player outputting an interlaced signal...reason being I was under the impression that letting the processor on the projector would yield better results. Should I set my player to progressive as well?

Experiment and look at the results for yourself.

I have my Sony & Onkyo DVD players set to 480p on my Sony KD-34XBR960. Seems to me the DVD players do a better job of reading the flags in the material.

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