Confused About Aspect Ratios and Black Bars (1 Viewer)

[Daniel_L]

I'm new to home theater and confused. My set up is a Sony kv32hs500 set to Cinemotion and 16:9 enhanced (auto). My DVD player is a Pany 91 set for 16:9 TV and I had progressive scan on.

When I watch 2.35:1 dvds, I get a great picture with black bars top and bottom. When I watch Saving Private Ryan and Say anything (both 1.85:1, I think), I again get a great picture with black bars top and bottom. When I watch Hearts In Atlantis (1.85:1), I get black bars AND grey bars top and bottom? Why is Hearts In Atlantis different?

Are these the best settings to use?

 

[Chris Brown]

I think it has to do with the difference between "anamorphic" and "Widescreen". Traditional widescreen actually has the black bars encoded as part of the film, while anamorphic uses the entire film for the picture and then your player/display stretches or compresses it back to the normal size, therefore making it's own black bars, instead of the black bars being encoded in the film itself. It is my experience that black bars encoded into the film itself are not "as black" as the bars generated by your Player/Display when viewing an anamorphic, and therefore appear grey. What you are seeing may be a combo of the two.

 

[Michael Reuben]

ORIGINAL POST DELETED BY AUTHOR. I confused two different films in my head, so that my initial post on this was headed in the wrong direction. A better-considered version appears below.
M.

 

[Joe Tilley]

Daniel, it sounds to me like the brightness & or contrast is up to high on your TV. The bars should be black all the way through. Are they just plain gray or are they more of a washed out black kind of gray?

I have a Sony also & if you have the brightness up to high on sources with a smaller format there will be a second set of bars but if you adjust you set a little you wont see them at all.

 

[Chris Brown]

Thinking that maybe it is a 2.35:1 movie with encoded black bars to make it 1.85:1, and then it's just like a regular 1.85:1 anamorphic.

Playing on a regular TV, it would have "Grey" bars to the 1.85:1 area, and then anamorphic created black bars for the rest of the screen. This sounds like it could be what Daniel was talking about.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I think it has to do with the difference between "anamorphic" and "Widescreen".

After thinking about it, I think you're onto something.

Hearts in Atlantis is (a) anamorphic, and (b) 2.35:1. If Daniel is comparing it to other 2.35:1 movies that aren't anamorphically enhanced, this may explain the difference.

Joe Tilley's post about the brightness settings is important.

Daniel:

1. What shape is your screen -- 16:9 or 4:3?
2. Please list 2.35:1 films (as many as possible) where you don't see both gray and black bars.

M.

 

[Daniel_L]

Well, I went back and checked all the dvd's I have available. It seems all the 2.35:1 dvd's I have have the black bars on top of the grey bars, top and bottom, (Moulin Rouge, Crouching Tiger, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Blackhawk Down).

Saving Private Ryan and Say Anything both have ONLY the black bars and thus fill my screen more (I think both are 1.85:1). Mullholland Drive also lacks the grey bars but I don't know what aspect ratio this film is.

Hearts In Atlantis has both the grey bars and the black bars. Is this film 2.35:1?

My television is a 32" direct view Sony KV32hs500 (4.3:1) and has been calibrated with Avia.

 

[Daniel_L]

Sorry for the confusion. I guess I had the details in my first post turned around.

 

[Joe Tilley]

So I take it that the gray bars you are seeing are a light gray? It don't make since to me that you would have gray & black. Some of the newer tv's are using gray bars instead of black but I have never heard of both being used.

I do know that there is a way to change the Sony models that have gray bars to black by the service menu. The only thing is I don't remember where I found it at or what models it was on.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Mullholland Drive also lacks the grey bars but I don't know what aspect ratio this film is.

Mulholland Drive is 1.85:1.

It sounds like this grey/black phenomenon occurs on 2.35:1 films that are 16:9 enhanced (anamorphic). I suspect the grey area represents the letterboxed areas that are part of the image on the DVD, whereas the black ones are part of your set's display. That would explain why you don't see them on 1.85:1 anamorphic discs.

I know you said you calibrated with AVIA, but I suggest you try to do some fine-tuning with brightness and contrast using one of the 2.35:1 discs that give you two-tone bars. It may only take some minor shifts in brightness and contrast to blend the grey into the black.

M.

 

[Daniel_L]

My bad. I went back and recalibrated with Avia and found my settings to be off. Now I've got just the single black bars. It also appears Hearts in Atlantis is 2.35:1 instead of 1.85:1 as someone told me. Thanks to everyone for the input.

 

[Michael Reuben]

It also appears Hearts in Atlantis is 2.35:1 instead of 1.85:1 as someone told me.

That was me. One of several mistakes in my first message in this thread, which is why I went back and edited it.

Glad you were able to clear up the problem.

M.