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Are 1:1.85 anamorphic DVDs letterboxed on 16:9 sets? (1 Viewer)

Jay Sylvester

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 27, 2002
Messages
521
I'm thinking about buying an HDTV, but one thing has been bothering me. If I play a 1:1.85 aspect ratio anamorphic DVD on a 16:9 set, will it be slightly letterboxed so as to preserve the correct aspect ratio, or is it stretched vertically to fill the screen? Is there a setting on the TV that would allow me to choose?
 

Vince Maskeeper

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 18, 1999
Messages
6,500
Jay,
I'm not sure if you are asking what you mean to be asking (are you sure you weren't thinking 2.35:1?) but the answer to your actual question is actually a bit complicated.
Your question as it appears above would be:
"With a 16x9 TV and a real 1.85:1 anamorphic DVD, the image would need a very slight letterboxing to really miantain a strict 1.85:1 aspect... does this happen?"
1.85:1 is right about 16.6:9... so they are almost the same shape... so does DVD present this properly or just assume it is 16:9 and adjust.
The answer is: depends.
Some 1.85:1 DVDs are transferred as if they were 1.78:1 and thus fill the screen completely. I would say more than half 1.85:1 discs are actually slightly cropped to 1.78:1... although few notice because were talking about literally a single digit number of lines.
Some 1.85:1 discs are actually slightly boxed to maintain the exact aspect ratio. But on the majority of sets, this is such a monumentally small boxing, that it is eaten by overscan and thus you never see it anyway.
There will be no setting on your TV to change the aspect of 1.85:1 aspects specifically.
But, if you meant 2.35:1 films, then the answer is different...
2.35:1 films on the other hand will have larger black bars to mantain proper aspect even on a 16x9 screen (2.35:1 is still wider than 16x9, so the bars are necessary).
screen7.jpg

Technically speaking, you could tell your set to zoom in on the picture of 2.35:1 discs which would eliminate the bars-- however you would crop out a bigt portion of info on the left/right sides, and be zooming to expand the picture area, resulting in a reduction in quality.
-Vince
 

Jay Sylvester

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 27, 2002
Messages
521
Vince, I was asking exactly what I appeared to be asking :) I realize that 2.35:1 films will still show black bars due to their extra-wide images. I was just wondering if 1.85:1 DVDs would actually be true to their claimed aspect ratio and use letterboxing, or just get stretched vertically by the TV itself to fill the screen.
If I'm reading your explanation correctly, it seems that anamorphic DVDs with a true 1.85:1 aspect ratio will still be slightly letterboxed, while DVDs that are labeled as 1.85:1 but are actually horizontally cropped to fit a 16:9 display will do just that: fit a 16:9 display.
Isn't it misleading to claim a film is 1.85:1 when it's actually cropped to 1.78:1?
 

Bill Lucas

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 20, 1999
Messages
530
If you set has 0 overscan then 1.85:1 will have small black bars. 99.99% of the sets out there have at least some overscan so 1.85:1 movies fill up the entire screen. Regards.
 

Vince Maskeeper

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 18, 1999
Messages
6,500
Isn't it misleading to claim a film is 1.85:1 when it's actually cropped to 1.78:1?
Yes, yes it is. However many do it anyway. Again- we'e talking about a minimal number of pixels (about 10 from each side cropped)-- so some studios see them as "the same thing".

So it's a mixed bag-- you'll find probably around 50/50-- 1.85 proper boxed with really small boxing you can see on 0 overscan-- or some cropped to dead 16x9 with no boxing.

Another issue that will complicate things is once you actually have a set with 0 overscan, you'll find that most transfers don't use the full image area-- and some have slight boxing on all sides- and sometimes it is uneven. This confuses the issue further because sometimes people see the top/bottom boxing and thing it's correct for 1.85, but ignore that it was equally boxed on the side- meaning it was actually 1.78...

Have fun.

-V
 

Jim Ferguson

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 9, 1998
Messages
83
As Vince said, it appears that about half of the nominally 1.85:1 movies are actually 1.78:1. Whether this is because the sides are cropped slightly, or whether the top and bottom of the mattes are opened up slightly is also a variable. Generally I think the mattes are opened up, since this is the way many 4:3 transfers are done of 1.85:1 movies.

In my experience, non-anamorphic transfers are more likely to be a "true" 1.85:1 than anamorphic transfers, for whatever reason.

In any case, on 99% of standard widescreen RPTVs you will not see that small black bars at the top and bottom even if it is a true 1.85:1 transfer, since it will usually be hidden by overscan. I can only see it on my front projection system because I have 0% overscan.
 

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