Anamorphic Help! (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Belfast]

Will someone for the love of god plese tell me what Anamorphic widescreen is. Please exlplain as if I was a 2 year old.
I have a Samsung 32 Inch Widescreen TV.
A Sony DVP-S715 Dvd Player. Maybe a little old, but a great machine.

Let me tell you what I think Anamorphic means. Lets take 2 of my titles to play with.

Titanic Region 2 and Die Another Day Region 2. Both are widescreen and only Die Another Day states that it is anamorphic.

When I put Titanic on and play the movie, I get black bars at the top and bottom on my TV.

When I Put in Die Another Day, there is no Black bars. The entire screen is filled. Does this mean I am losing out on any picture?

Please help guys.

Thanx


Ryan

 

[Shane_M]

Hey Ryan,

This is probably one of the better explanations out there.

dvdweb.co.uk/information/anamorphic.htm

 

[greg_t]

Your TV is a 16x9 widescreen. 16x9 widescreen sets have an aspect ration of 1.78:1, which means the screen is 1.78 times wider than it is high.

A title that is anamaphoric widescreen simply means that when played on a 16x9 television, you will gain 33% additional resolution. This results in a sharper, more detailed image due to the additional resolution. This has nothing to do with whether or not your screen is filled. Again, a title being anamphorically enchanged simply means that you gain 33% resolution when played on a 16x9 television using the televisions 16x9 mode.

Titanic on the other hand is letterboxed widescreen and is NOT anamaphorically enchanced. This means that you will not recieve additional resolution and you will not be able to use your sets 16x9 mode. You will need to use one of it's various aspect ratio modes such as zoom to properly disply the image. A non-anamaphoric title will not be as sharp and detailed as an anamphoric title because it has 33% less resolution and you have to use a zoom mode to properly display it.

As I stated earlier, a 16x9 TV has an aspect ratio of 1.78. Movies however come in many different aspect ratios, the two most common being 1.78 and 2.35. For anything over 1.78, you will get small black bars. You stated that for Die another day, you do not have black bars, this tells us that you have something set wrong, as Die Another Day is a 2.35 ratio film, and your set has a ratio of 1.78. You should have small black bars on the top and bottom. It sounds like you are using a zoom mode instead of your TV's 16x9 mode.

 

[Ryan Belfast]

Hi greg.

I just checked Die Another Day. Your right, it does have small black bard at the top and bototm of screen. So hopefully eberything is set ok and I am not losing picture.
thanks for help.

 

[Michael Reuben]

This and many other questions are answered in the HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ. Use the link in my signature.

M.

 

[Charlie O.]

How does Anamorphic work with computer monitors. I sometimes watch my DVDs on computer using WinDVD.

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

WinDVD properly adjusts to the particular disc, whether it's anamorphically enhanced or not.

 

[Charlie O.]

Thanks, one more question

Do i still need a 16x9 monitor (if they even make thoses) or will work with a 4x3 monitor?

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

You do not need a widescreen-shaped monitor (and yes, they do make them) in order to watch anamorphically-enhanced DVDs on your computer. You'll get the full available resolution regadless of the monitor's actual width to height ratio.

 

[Charlie O.]

Nice. Thanks a lot.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Please...

There is NO "33 percent gain" in resolution on a so-called "anamorphic" disc. None. Zilch. Nada. Even the word "anamorphic" is a misnomer when applied to DVD encoding.

All an "anamorphic" disc is is one whose 480 lines of resolution are encoded in a 16:9 native window. It has no more lines of resolution than a disc encoded in a native 4:3 window.

Therefore, for proper playback of a 16:9-encoded disc one must have either a 16:9 native display or a 4:3 display that has a 16:9 mode.

This talk of "33 percent more resolution" comes from the fact that when 16:9-encoded discs are screened on a 4:3 display that doesn't have a 16:9 mode, the DVD player must scale the image for proper display; in so doing, the player discards every third line of resolution in order to paint the letterboxing bars. When you screen this same disc on a 16:9 display, you "gain" back those lost lines of resolution.

 

[GerardoHP]

Ryan, it sounds to me like you may have not set up your DVD player for 16:9 enhancement.

When you play DIE ANOTHER DAY, the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen should look almost exactly as big as the black bars on TITANIC. When you play DIE ANOTHER DAY, does the picture look slightly stretched up and down, as if characters and objects appear slightly "skinny"?

 

[Ryan Belfast]

No-

I was wrong, there are small black bars at the top and bottom. The picture is perfect.

thanx for helping

 

[JonZ]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...hic/index.html

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Jack,

you're absolutely right that both 4x3 and 16x9 (what we incorrectly refer to as "anamorphic") DVDs have exactly the same resolution of 720 x 480 pixels.

HOWEVER,

the active image area of a widescreen movie will utilize more of those pixels in the 16x9 frame that it would in the 4x3 frame: 33% more pixels of active-image area to be exact.

Therefore, it is entirely correct to say that a 16x9 DVD provides "33% more resolution" for a WS film (1.77:1 or wider) than the same WS transfer mastered in a 4x3 frame (where 33% of those available vertical pixels are needlessly wasted on letterboxing).

Aspect ratios wider than 1.78:1, such as 2.35:1, are still "letterboxed" even in a 16x9 frame and so do not use the total 480 vertical-available pixels. However, a 2.35:1 movie *still* uses 33% *more* pixels in a 16x9 frame than it would have in a 4x3 frame...where it would have wasted much more vertical resolution to letterboxing than in the 16x9 frame.

As you say, taking a 16x9 image and donwconverting it to 4x3 lbx does reduce the vertical resolution of the image. However, any native 4x3 lbxed transfer is pre-mastered with this loss of resolution from the start.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Thanks for clarifying what I was trying to say, David! You are correct in noting that letterboxed-only DVDs (4:3-encoded discs containing a widescreen image) contain less picture resolution than 16:9-encoded discs of the same image. I should have pointed that out. (Example: Your old copy of Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country, which was issued in 4:3-encoded widescreen possesses far less resolution than the new 16:9-encoded disc of the same film.)