Cropped Picture...WHY???? (1 Viewer)

[Claude North]

I'm sure that someone out there can explain this to me...

When I watch a letterboxed DVD, the right side of the frame gets cut off. I noticed this on my copy of Criterion's 3 WOMEN. I thought perhaps it was a poor transfer, but when I played it on my computer, I saw the entire image.

I tried the different settings on my DVD player (4:3 Letterbox; 4:3 Pan and Scan; 16:9), but none of them corrected the problem.

I don't have a widescreen TV, so I'm wondering if that's the problem. Or perhaps the problem is my DVD player. Are there older models that cannot "handle" anamorphic DVDs?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

John

 

[alan halvorson]

A little more information would be helpful. How much is cropped? Is your display capable of handling an anamorphic signal?

There is such a thing as overscan. This is where, ideed, the picture is cropped intentionally because the edge fluctuates a bit and would look funny were it not cropped. Most displays overscan to some extent, but too many overdo it. Watch a channel that runs text on the bottom. You should see all the text, but I have seen a great many displays chop as much as half of it off. Your set should have an internal adjustment for overscan; I wished it was user accessable.

 

[Michael Reuben]

No, all of them can. This is almost certainly an overscan problem, which means it's your TV.

M.

 

[george kaplan]

Futhermore, the amount of overscan may be significantly more on one side than on another.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Just sounds like the overscan on your set is wacky, and off center. A test disc like DVE or AVIA would give you an exact figure, but it sounds like cropping from the display.

On a sie note, unless your tv has an anamorphic squeeze mode, your DVD player should be set to 4:3 letterbox.

-V

 

[Claude North]

Thanks for the information!

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Some DVD players also suffer from "pixel cropping", where the player also clips some the extreme edges of the image off. The reviews over at "Secrets of Home Theater" usually mention the amount per player.