HD vs SD aspect ratios ( newbie alert ) (1 Viewer)

I'm new to the site - please forgive me if this has been addressed in another thread.

I have The Last Samurai in SD-DVD and HD-DVD formats. According to the
packages the SD is in 2.35:1 and the HD is in 2.40:1. When I view the SD version on my SD player the black bars are about 3" thick while if I view the HD version on my new Toshiba HD player the black bars are about 1/2 the thickness ( running at 1080i ).

Example:

SD-DVD version:



HD-DVD version:



Keep in mind that these pics illustrate the ratio not the actual content ( the image on my TV is not warped as in these pics )

Is this to be expected? I thought that if both versions were using the same apsect ratio that the thickness of the black bars would be almost the same.

I just want to ensure that I'm not loosing any of the frame ( left and right )

Thanks

Depends on a lot of things. Is your overscan set the same for both inputs? The difference can be enormous.

Greetings

Depends on your TV. Many TV's have separate height and width settings for SD and HD. AKA Overscan. Likely you are seeing this. It's more your Tv's fault than anything else.

Regards

That's just what I was going to say check overscan settings.

I don't think my TV has any overscan options

HITACHI 46F500

Greetings

See if you can run an HD DVD downconverted image via the S video to the TV to tell if the transfer aspect ratio is the offender here rather than your TV.

Regards

Delete double post

The overscan on my Pioneer Elite is much larger with HD input (1080i, 33 kHz) vs. on SD (480p, 31.5 kHz).

steve, try running a 1:1.85 or 1:1.77 480i dvd in your player. Do you still get black bars?

I'll try this when I get home this eve ( at work now )

I should also mention that I have the same problem with the HD player viewing
SD-DVD titles at 1080i

When I do this it looks like the TV has zoomed in on the image

I've been playing with various configs using HDMI, S-Video and Component
which all generate the same output. I've also tried changing the video settings
of the HD player with nothing to report. After playing some SD titles I've decided that the best thing for me to do is to return the HD player as the aspect
ratio is also changed when viewing these older titles.

Thanks for your suggestions

hmm. it sounded as though the player with the wide borders was set to 4:3 mode (instead of 16:9). oh well.

Well, they certainly wouldn't be in any user menus. Overscan adjustments would only be accessable through the service menu I would think.

I tried all 3 settings with the same results:

16:9
4:3
4:3 letterbox

Please consider calling Toshiba tech support and allowing them to walk you through setup. Something must be amiss, and they're generally quite good.

Both player and monitor must be set up to sync with one another.

Welcome to HTF.

RAH

I did and they told me that this was to be expected