Full Monty / Spaceballs framing question (1 Viewer)

Al.Anderson · Apr 6, 2005

I just watched these two movies in sequence and both of them were "centered" on a wide screen TV (bars on all 4 sides). I never notice this happen before, so it's strange that I was hit twice in succession. Does anyone know if these releases are really framed strangely; or did someone in my house hit a wrong button?

(I did try other films and they seemed to play as I expected ... it just seems strange enough that I have to ask.)

P.S. I truly hate Spaceballs, but I owed my son one!

Brandon Conway · Apr 6, 2005

That's what happens when a DVD is not anamorphically enhanced for 16:9 TVs.

For a more detailed breakdown of the process, you can visit this great guide by thedigitalbits.com.

GerardoHP · Apr 6, 2005

Well, not exactly. Only if your TV is set to show bars on the side AND the DVD is non-anamorphic widescreen.

Al.Anderson · Apr 7, 2005

Thanks guys. And the link was interesting. I now understand that these two DVDs are just non-animorphic widescreen, and it was simply coincidence that I watched them back-to-back.

But I still have a question. Before reading the Digitalbits paper, I thought that non-animorphic encoding would have just used a portion of the horizontal lines for the non-film data (the black bars); thereby throwing away resolution. The paper confirmed that I'll also see vertical bars - but why? I don't see the reason for this data to be encoded in the picture.

Brandon Conway · Apr 7, 2005

The vertical bars are not encoded in the picture. They're generated by your television.

Damin J Toell · Apr 7, 2005

To put what Brandon says above into context, since the transfers are non-anamorphic, your display thinks it is showing you a 4x3 image, thereby necessitating the bars on either side. To overcome this, you would have to zoom the image to fill the screen and crop out the appropriate parts of the black bars on the top and bottom.

Rolando · Apr 7, 2005

Don't forget depending on the player it's possible that the DVD player is generating the bars. My Malata 996 does this.

If it's your TV is set to "auto" when it comes to "pic size" then it would go from FULL to STANDARD or NORMAL and generate grey bars on the side. in which case you can go to some THEATRE WIDE size that will fame it correctly (eliminate side bars).

However if it is the player generating this you will either need to use player zoom (as I do) or go into the player setting, set it to output for 4:3 TV and then follow the previous instructions.

If you player is generating a 16:9 pic by adding the black bars then changing the "pic size" will give you a distorted image with tall skinny people.

Hope that helps.

TonyD · Apr 7, 2005

should have waited alittle longer for the special edition of spaceballs coing soon.

Al.Anderson · Apr 8, 2005

It just clicked. Thanks for the explanations.

Yeah, I saw the SE announced 2 days after I bought it; but it was a time-dependant gift so I was stuck anyway. As consolation, it was only $7.00 at Walmart.

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Full Monty / Spaceballs framing question (1 Viewer)

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