16x9 TV question (on Panny 47") (1 Viewer)

[Jim Tudor]

I just got my first widescreen HD RPTV, a 47" Panasonic. I've tweaked it using tips from here and around the net, and it looks great so far - except, I'm a bit confused about whether or not I'm seeing DVDs in their OAR.
16x9 equals 1.78:1, correct? 1.85:1 DVDs completely fill the screen, even though I would think there'd be minimal letterboxing. Maybe this set has that much overscan, I suppose I can live with it. (Grumble, grumble...) But what about 2.35:1 DVDs? Watching "Die Hard" last night, I noticed the last few letters of some names in the openning credits were lost to the extreme right-hand side of the screen. Again, I have to wonder just how much is being lost.
Finally, we watched "The Emperor's New Groove", which has a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, yet it filled the whole screen. Obvioulsy, I must be losing the top & bottom of that movie. I this right? OAR is pretty important to me, and I'd be kind of surprised if I learned that this is just something home theater buffs just "learn to live with" in the pursuit of an anamorphic picture. Am I doing something wrong with my TV's settings? How much overscan is generally acceptable? Does my TV's overscan sound abnormal?
Any comments & answers are much appreciated.
JiM T

 

[Stefan A]

Jim,
I too am a rookie Widescreen TV owner with a new Toshiba 50h81. I have been thinking about the exact same issue lately as well. I don't know exactly how your Panny works, but on my Toshiba, there are 4 different settings for widescreen dvds. I have spent much time pausing the picture and looking at the picture composition in the various settings. I would imagine that your Panny has similar options. On a 2.35 aspect ratio movie, you should not have anything cut off anywhere. Look over your manual for different picture modes or sizes. Something else I discovered after 24 hours of owning my new T.V was that I forgot to change my dvd player seting from 4:3 to 16:9. This made a difference in image quality and size. Although the size difference was vertical, and not horizontal like you are talking about.
I don't want to steal the thunder away from your topic, but I have a question that is similar to yours. Maybe people could help both of us.
When I watch a 1.85 movie on my 50h81, there are only 2 picture size modes that make the images look natural. Unfortunately, I am getting slight cuttoff on the top or the side of the image depending what pic size mode I am in. Like Jim said, since a wide screen TV is actually 1.78:1, I should be getting slight letterboxing on 1.85 movies - but I am not. Any ideas why a 1.85 movie is not displaying properly?
Stefan Antwarg

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Normally, when you watch 1.85:1 films on a 16x9 television you will not see horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. This is due to overscan. Not to worry, though. You are only missing a very small percentage of the picture. (I can't remember the exact amount.) When you view 2.35:1 films on a 16x9 telvision, you will see fairly small horizontal black bars (roughly equivalent in size to the bars you see when watching 1.85:1 films on a traditional 4:3 set).
You need to make sure that you have your television set to the correct mode. The names of these "modes" vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. If it's not clear from the manual then I suggest experimenting until you find the correct one. Also, absolutely be sure that your DVD player it set to 16x9 output.
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[Jim Tudor]

Setting the DVD player to 16x9 was one of the first things I did. (With much rejoicing!) There are 4 modes on the Panny, 4x3, Full, Just, and Zoom. We know we don't want 4x3 and Zoom, so it must be Full or Just, right? So far, I haven't been able to tell the difference between the two. Granted, I haven't compared the "Die Hard" openning credits that I was complaining about with both of them, either. I'll try that.
Anyone know why 1.66:1 gets the full screen treatment? Seems to me that there ought to be narrow bars on the sides of the screen, seeing that 1.85:1 fills the screen as it should.
Thanks for the replies, guys!
JiM T

 

[JohnnyG]

The difference between 1.85 and 1.78 is something like 9 scan lines top and bottom - well within the overscan area.
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[Edited last by JohnnyG on August 11, 2001 at 02:46 PM]