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Aspect Ratios (1 Viewer)

ColColt

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With the advent of BD players making their entrance some years back, you'd think someone in the industry could make, remake a DVD that would fill up a 16:9 TV without either chopping off the left and right or top and bottom of the picture. If TV's are set up for the standard 16:9 ratio, why cant movies be processed to fill up that frame. I've read it's not good, due to burn in, too have black bars wherever they may lurk, on your screen for two hours or so. Some movies are beyond the two hour frame line, such as Schindler's List, and I was just curious about all this.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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ColColt said:
With the advent of BD players making their entrance some years back, you'd think someone in the industry could make, remake a DVD that would fill up a 16:9 TV without either chopping off the left and right or top and bottom of the picture. If TV's are set up for the standard 16:9 ratio, why cant movies be processed to fill up that frame. I've read it's not good, due to burn in, too have black bars wherever they may lurk, on your screen for two hours or so. Some movies are beyond the two hour frame line, such as Schindler's List, and I was just curious about all this.
How could that happen without either stretching or cropping the picture to fit 16x9?Also - burn in is usually only a problem with plasma sets that have their brightness and contrast set too high. Use a calibration disk to adjust the picture correctly and avoid leaving the set on for extended periods with letterbox bars for the first 100 hours or so. After the break-in period, you should be fine. Also, don't leave the set on CNN or other channels for hours with a fixed scroll at the bottom even after break-in. That is more likely to cause damage than a movie with letterbox bars.
 

Jari K

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1.33:1, 1:66:1, 1:78:1, 1.85:1, 2.40:1... Movies use all these aspect ratios (and more). If you want the OAR, there will be "black bars" somewhere with certain films.Burn in was also mentioned. Sure, some plasma models could have burn in problems (at least older ones), but the others (lcd, led) are just fine.
 

ColColt

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I guess everything's a compromise but what I was getting at is if you buy a 32 inch or 60 inch for that matter, TV it would be nice to be able to see video in all that area. Them black bars can cover nearly half of the TV.

My favorite news/weather/sports channel, for some unknown reason, started broadcasting during news time something totally unrelated at the bottom of the screen that scrolls relentlessly during the entire program from left to right. Totally aggravating.
 

Jari K

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ColColt said:
I guess everything's a compromise...
Here's your answer. If your tv is 1.78:1 (AKA normal widescreen tv), you'll get black bars with 4:3 (on the sides), 1.66:1 (on the sides, but smaller), 1.85:1 (minor black bars on the top and on the bottom - probably can't see them if your tv set has some overscan) and 2.40:1 (bigger black bars on the top and on the bottom).

So, get used to them. ;)
 

Sumnernor

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Sort of in the vain. Ben Hur is a very wide-screen film with black bars top and bottom. I have a LCD TV and so have no problem- Slightly different but with black bars top and bottom and on the sides is Star Wars,
 

ColColt

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According to the owner's manual with my LG LED TV, two hours of black bars will cause burn in.

"If a fixed image displays on the TV screen for a longperiod of time, it will be imprinted and become apermanent disfigurement on the screen. This is“image burn” or “burn-in” and not covered by the
warranty."

"Avoid displaying a fixed image on the TV screen fora long period of time (2 or more hours for LCD, 1or more hours for the Plasma TV) to prevent image burn in."
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Strange then that we didn't hear massive reports of flat panel burn-in from people who watched Titanic. Or Lord of the Rings.
 

Jari K

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ColColt said:
According to the owner's manual with my LG LED TV, two hours of black bars will cause burn in.
They're just covering their own asses if people leave some movie in "pause" for hours and hours or something silly. There's no burn in with movies with "black bars". I mean most of us in these forums watch movies in their OAR and most of us (I would say 90%?) have a 1.78:1 tv. And yes, we watch Titanic, LOTR and The Wolf of Wall St.

Besides, most tv sets now have some kind of "dimmer" or screensaver that you can switch on. If you want to go change some diapers or just talk on the phone, the screen will dim after (let's say) 10 minutes. You can choose the time.
 

DaveF

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ColColt said:
I guess everything's a compromise but what I was getting at is if you buy a 32 inch or 60 inch for that matter, TV it would be nice to be able to see video in all that area. Them black bars can cover nearly half of the TV..
That's what your TV's zoom / stretch feature is for.
 

ColColt

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All I stated was what the manual disclosed about the burn it. I wouldn't think a TV would know the difference between a movie that's been on two or more hours with black bars at the top or sides and someone who just put the movie on pause two hours. That makes no sense.

The zoom/stretch feature only distorts the picture.
 

Mark-P

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So basically you just want all filmmakers to compose everything for 16X9? Personally I enjoy a variety of aspect ratios and absolutely don't want them compromised on my home theater set up.
 

Jari K

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"That's what your TV's zoom / stretch feature is for."Sorry, but no. Just no.You can't zoom or stretch (two different issues, btw) the aspect ratios IF you want to keep the OAR and/or the quality. End of story.There are no magical tricks to this "black bars" issue. If you want the OAR and keep the quality, you just have to live with them.With 16:9 tv, the only aspect ratio that doesn't have any black bars whatsoever is 1.78:1. There's a movie with 1.85:1 ratio? Bing - minor black bars already! ;)
 

Sumnernor

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I don`t have any DVDs where the black bars take up most of the screen space, Please name the DVDs that you have that gives problems. If you get rid of the black bars for example on Ben Hur, you loose part of the picture on the sides.
 

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