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Playing Non-anamorphic DVDs on Blu-Ray (1 Viewer)

Jon Baker

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Is there a way I can play my Non-Anamorphic DVDs on my Sony BDP-S1100 Blu-Ray player so that they can fill the screen on my widescreen TV? What I'm getting is the picture in a box in the middle of my screen and not zooming in like I was able to do on my older Sony DVD player. Any help would be appreciated.
 

jcroy

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What's wrong with just using your older Sony dvd player? (Assuming it is not broken).
 

Brian McHale

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If the player won't zoom, your TV might. Look for aspect ratio controls on your TV.
 

Jason Charlton

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There are likely a number of things standing in the way of accomplishing what you want.

Many times, TVs limit the "stretch" modes for HDMI inputs. Using component video connections can sometimes bypass this, but your player does not (and all newer Blu-ray players do not) have component video outputs.

Many times, TVs limit the "stretch" modes for any High-Def input (720p, 1080i, 1080p). You can try to set the output resolution of your player to something"non-hd", but this may not be possible since you're using HDMI output.

If you are unable to find a solution using your current Blu-ray player, your best bet might be to try and find a cheap DVD player that has component outputs (of course, this assumes your TV has component inputs... does it?). You can find cheap DVD players at Amazon for $30 and under.
 

nara

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Why on earth would you want to zoom in?Movies are meant to be watched in the ratio they were filmed in. Anything else is just wrong on so many levels!
 

David Weicker

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Nara, the OP posed this question because Non-Anamorphic DVDs often end up Window-Boxed when played through a Blu-Ray player. One method to adjust for this is Zoom
 

Jason Charlton

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David Weicker said:
Nara, the OP posed this question because Non-Anamorphic DVDs often end up Window-Boxed when played through a Blu-Ray player. One method to adjust for this is Zoom
Correct -- assuming that the display will allow for an HDMI or HD input signal to be zoomed. If the Blu-ray player upscales the DVD image to an HD resolution, the display has no way of knowing that the source is non-HD and may disable zooming of any kind. This is why the OP may need to change the output resolution of the Blu-ray player to non-HD in order for zoom to work.
 

Matt Hough

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Panasonic Blu-ray players come with a built in zoom function that works with DVDs and Blu-rays, but sadly Sony Blu-ray players don't have it like their DVD players did.
 

nara

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David Weicker said:
Nara, the OP posed this question because Non-Anamorphic DVDs often end up Window-Boxed when played through a Blu-Ray player. One method to adjust for this is Zoom
Apologies. My mistake.
 

Brian McHale

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Matt Hough said:
Panasonic Blu-ray players come with a built in zoom function that works with DVDs and Blu-rays, but sadly Sony Blu-ray players don't have it like their DVD players did.
This doesn't always work. My Panny (BD35) will automatically zoom correctly flagged non-anamorphic DVDs. However, it will not zoom non-anamorphic DVDs that aren't flagged as such. In that case, I have to use my TV (my Samsung DLP would allow this; haven't tried this on my Panny Plasma).
 

schan1269

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I stayed away from this topic cause all my theatres have a region-free DVD player, so I play all DVDs in them.

Didn't even know such a problem existed. I too have the BD35...but it has never had a DVD in it.

Now I also have the Orei region free BD player. I might try a DVD in it(haven't played a DVD in it either...as the DVD player with it plays SACD/DVD-A).
 

Tina_H_V

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The OPPOs do an awesome job, IMHO, on non-anamorphic DVD's. I have revisited many earlier non-anamorphic DVD's from the late 1990s, such as Bound, Rollercoaster, and Two Minute Warning, amongst others, through the OPPOs and they really bring things alive. Coupled with the 1080p/24hz DVD upconversions as provided, and it is as if my older non-anamorphic DVD's are being given an entirely new life as a result. I was also able to revisit, in an entirely new light, This Old Cub, the documentary about the late, great Ron Santo, which was produced a few years just prior to his death in 2010, and before his posthumous induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame, which came two years later. That was also a non-anamorphic DVD title which I went on to appreciate even further as a result as well.

Having a Blu-ray Disc player of any kind, which can produce a zoom on non-anamorphic DVD's, is such a plus which can, IMHO, give older letterboxed DVD's an entirely new life and appreciation. Many manuals will specifically disclose such info, as presented, in order to further one's continued enjoyment on their Blu-ray Disc players, especially on those older DVD's which may not otherwise be available save these earlier letterboxed presentations.
 

jcroy

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Outside of a high end player, the only other way I can get a non-anamorphic dvd to look decent on the screen, is to play it on the computer and getting the video player program to manually crop the black bars away.
 

Jon Baker

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Thanks for all the replies and input to my question. I do still have my old DVD player to play my non-anamorphic discs on, although the quality doesn't look as nice as the upconverted picture on the blu-ray player. The non-anamorphic DVD titles are very few (mostly early Universal, Anchor Bay) and I have decided to upgrade a few of those with the blu-ray editions.
 

schan1269

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What DVD player is this?

I play all my DVD's on...

Oppo 970
Pioneer DV420
Elite DV49
Onkyo/Integra DV-SP504/6.7(same player...have one of each)
LG DN191

All of them surpass the BD player they are paired with. Granted my "newest" BD player(not counting the Orei region-free) is a Panny BD77.
 

YANG

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I do have the same problem as TS as i have numbers of non-16:9 DVDs as well.
So this is what i do when i got my PHILIPS SoundBar with DVD/BD playback capability during the past weekends.

Because my PANASONIC TV have this 14:9 zoom feature, i set my player to output 4:3 WS @ 720p.
No matter anamorphic or not, all DVDs are played to its original aspect ratio without any distortion to the picture quality. Of course, black bars will appear on the left and right of the screen. Give and take. If the DVD transfer quality is poor, it's not suggestible to use zoom to remove the black bars as the noise on the pictures gets magnified easily. If the transfer quality on the DVD is good, even if we use zoom on the TV to cut off the black bars, the noise will not be evident.

I just replayed the good old APOCALYPSE NOW Laserdisc today, with 14:9 presentation on a 32inch LED screen.
 

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