2.35.1, 1.85.1, Anamorphic.... etc.. someone please school me :) (1 Viewer)

[Jim Carr]

What does all this mean? 2.35.1, 1.85.. I know these are aspect ratios but which is better? I don't quite understand.

I have a 16:9 TV... which are the best for me? None of them seem to really 'fill' my screen?

thanks!

Jim

 

[Steve Felix]

There isn't an aspect ratio that's strictly "better" (although I like movies wide); the best ratio for a particular movie is the one that the director and cinematographer framed their shots for.

1.85:1 should be filling your screen (practically), but filling the screen is not the goal, maintaining visual choices is.

Edit: And anamorphic means that the image on the disc is squeezed but automatically stretched out by your player, meaning the full possible resolution of DVD is taken advantage of without wasting space on black bars. As an HDTV owner you definitely want to be looking for discs that are anamorphic, or "enhanced for widescreen TVs."

 

[Cees Alons]

Jim,

Because most monitors aren't flexible (well, projection screens aren't either, but can be adjusted more easily), they had to find a reasonable compromise. Older films were shot to have images with a 3x4 ratio (almost), like TV screens. But then wider film images were invented, partly to compete with TV. Because film wasn't too flexible either, they also had various techniques to squeeze it onto current film (AND have more complicated soundtracks as well).

So that's why films exist that were shot in a 2.35:1 ratio, or even wider, as well as more close to 1.85. To make TV screens be used more effective, they added a new format, 16x9 (= 1.778), close to 1.85, a current movie standard.

As long as a film image has a ratio that's different from the one of your screen, you either cannot see the whole image (bad) - although you payed for the whole movie - or else some parts of the screen will have to stay black (not beautiful, but not THAT bad).

Cees

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Read this for info about aspect ratios.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...reenorama.html
And read this for info about anamorphic widescreen.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...hic/index.html

 

[Jim Carr]

Thanks guys... you have been a great help!

 

[Matt Giggey]

Check this out for a cool demonstration of anamorphic widescreen:
Link Removed

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Check this out for a cool demonstration of anamorphic widescreen:

Too bad it's factually inaccurate.

 

[Scott H]

Too bad it's factually inaccurate.

Yep.

I've been commenting on the misinformation at that site for a long time. It's still wrong.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Pick movies by what you like, not the screen aspect ratio.

For example, Cast Away is a 1.85:1 film. Depending on how your screen is calibrated, the film will nearly fill the screen with tiny ribbons of black on the top and bottom.

Planet of the Apes is 2.35:1, so you'll get a shorter image.

But...when both of these films have the "black bars," they are being shown correctly. Even on 16x9 TV's.

The only formats that will NOT have black bars on a 16x9 TV are 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen films such as North By Northwest, The Godfather Trilogy, and Fantasia 2000.

1.66:1 anamorphic films will have some small bars on the SIDES to ensure that the proper image is kept. Some Disney films are this way.

Also, 1.33:1 movies such as Gone With The Wind will have black bars on the sides. The 16x9 TV is the ideal way to see widescreen cinema in your home.

 

[GlennH]

None of them seem to really 'fill' my screen

As some have noted, movies generally aren't made with the intent or goal of filling a TV screen, either a 4x3 or 16x9 screen. Thus, when we watch movies at home in their proper aspect ratio it's usually a compromise, with letterbox bars used as needed.

Just remember that the most important thing is to see the movie as it was presented in the theater, not to fill your screen. Knowing you are seeing the image as it was intended should offset any annoyance of the black bars.

Personally, I like wider movies such as 2.35:1, even though they result in black bars on my 16x9 TV. The image is plenty big enough and I sort of like seeing the entire image from top to bottom (nothing lost to overscan). I can live with the small amount lost to overscan on the sides.