4:3 BD 1080p Issue on 16:9 Display (1 Viewer)

[Keith I]

Unfortunately, since I don't know where my problem lies (BD player or TV), I'm posting my concern here since the issue is the display of my image.

I have an issue (I think) with my home theater setup. It was not in use for about five months, so my memory isn't clear about this.

I moved my home theater setup to another location so all cables were disconnected for some time. Most were in a home theater power bar where even if you turned off the switch, some of the connectors were still being fed power. But during the physical move, that power bar had to be disconnected from the wall outlet.

After I re-connected everything, I thought things were good and I proceeded to watch several Blu-rays.

When my son asked me if he could watch The Wizard of OZ, that's when I thought something was amiss. On the 4:3 image, I wanted to stretch it to fill the 16:9 screen because I have a plasma and didn't want to get burn-in. And since it's for him, I didn't care so much about proper aspect ratio than protecting the screen.

[I recall from before five months ago that when I watched a 4:3 Blu-ray in 1080p, I could not change the aspect ratio for a title like Star Trek: TOS. Not that I wanted to, but I was just playing around with various aspect ratio settings.]

So on my Panasonic TV's remote I pressed the Aspect button and it changed. Zoom, H-Fill, Full, Just, and 4:3 (with grey bars which I programmed).

When this happened, that's when that thought came to my mind. So I played Star Trek: TOS on Blu-ray and I could also change the aspect ratio on my TV. At first, I though my mind was playing tricks on me since it has been much more than five months since I last played TOS on Blu-ray. But when I saw a post on another forum stating that the person could not stretch the 4:3 image to fill his 16:9 screen (s/he said the image was "baked" onto the 1080p image), it confirmed what I thought when I first played TOS.

So I checked my connections: All good, all the same as before. I checked my Oppo BDP-83's settings: All good, all the same as before (thank goodness I wrote them down five months ago!). I did switch between 16:9 Wide and 16:9 Wide/Auto, but nothing was different between the two settings and nothing looked different. My TV settings were okay; just had to re-set date and time. I have both BD player and TV set to 1080p.

Does anyone have any idea or suggestions as to what's going on here (besides my memory being poor and just be thankful I have 4:3 grey mode)? I'm just in extreme wonder about what happened prior to five months ago and now. It's that feeling of "I just have to know!" Why am I able to alter the 4:3 BD image, when I think that I wasn't able to in the past?

Thanks!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Every time you stretch an Academy-ratio movie, an angel loses its wings.

 

[Keith I]

:patriot:

 

[Mike Williams]

I believe I can help you here. What you are seeing is not just a 4x3 image and black bars for negative space. You are seeing a 16x9 image filled with a 4x3 image and black bars on the sides. You cannot stretch the picture, because it is already 16x9. In effect, the 4x3 image is "Baked" onto the 1080 16x9 image. What you suspect is correct.

 

[Keith I]

Aloha Mike,
That's what I suspected, too. I thought all 4:3 Blu-rays were like what you described (a 16:9 image with 4:3 image inside). I know it was certainly true for the Star Trek: TOS BDs. But now that I know I'm not crazy, I still don't understand why I can now stretch the image (when I couldn't before). Oppo said they didn't know, after making some suggestions that didn't work. I don't think it's a receiver issue. And I'd be shocked if I got a response from Panasonic, but the TV settings aren't so vast that some inadvertent change in it would result in this and I'd miss it. I went through the TV settings (of which there are little) and nothing stood out in the video section.
Mahalo!