How do I get my DVD's to play in a 16:9 format? (1 Viewer)

[Dougie]

I recently bought a 61" Hitachi Ultravision the screen is 16:9. Here's the question: Do some DVD's have encoding on them which will automatically signal your TV to display the movie in a 16:9 format? Some DVD's I have look like they're in a letter-box version when I have the TV in the mode that displays grey bars on either side of the screen. When I hit the "aspect" button on the remote until the on-screen view says "fill", I lose the very bottom and top of the picture (e.g. I can't read the captions). :frowning: Are some DVD's formatted in neither a standard 4:3 or a 16:9 but somewhere in between these? Thanks
Doug

 

[Bill Kane]

First, have you "told" your DVD player that you have a 16:9 display?
After verifying this, here some readers...
Why do DVD movies come in different sizes?

 

[Michael Reuben]

Dougie --
Movies come in various shapes. Some of them will appear letterboxed on your 16:9 TV; some of them won't. This has nothing to do with whether those DVDs are formatted for 16:9 TVs. Here's some additional reading:
"What are some common aspect ratios?" and "What are "anamorphic" DVDs?"
M.

 

[Allan Jayne]

With a 16:9 TV (or a 4:3 TV with 16:9 mode) first set your DVD player to 16:9. The setting on the DVD player might be called "TV shape".
Next, the TV may or may not automatically select 16:9 mode. This is a TV feature as opposed to a DVD feature. If the TV does not automatically go into 16:9, all you need to do is manually choose a mode that looks good, using the TV remote. A few 16:9 TV sets allow aspect ratio choices only with S-video or interlaced sources, not progressive scan or HDTV sources.
Some movies with captions under the picture will only look good with the TV in 4:3 mode without zoom. While the wide screen picture would fit nicely on a 16:9 screen (not necessarily perfectly) the frame that would enclose both the picture and the caption might be more suited to a 4:3 shape with blank areas on the sides. The DVD player should still be in 16:9 mode.
As far as DVD aspect ratio types go, there are just two kinds:
1. Standard, for 4:3 shows, most movies with captions under the picture, and some wide screen movies.
2. 16:9 enhanced or anamorphic, for most wide screen movies 16:9 and wider. Most newer wide screen releases are this way. The video signal constructed by the DVD player has a code to cause TV sets with that feature to automatically select aspect ratio, but whether or not the DVD is anamorphic cannot be determined by analyzing the subject matter as pixels.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Michael Preyer]

Yeah, isn't that frustrating! I just bought my first wide screen TV, a 65" Toshiba RPTV. After properly setting up my new progressive scan DVD player to recognize my TV as a 16:9 and telling my TV which display mode to use, some of the "widescreen" DVD's I played STILL showed black bars top and bottom. Of course, I could make the bars go away by using one of the TV's optional viewing modes, but then I could see stretching, or else I lost some of the picture, depending on what TV viewing mode I chose.

Come to find out that some "widescreen" movies perfectly fit 16:9 and some don't. Oh well!

Cheers!
Michael

 

[Jon_Skiffington]

You're not going to always get rid of all of the black bars on a 16:9 TV. It depends on the aspect ratio. If it's 1.77:1, you eliminate the bars entirely. If it's something like 2.35:1, you'll still have small bars along the bottom and top. Check the FAQ:
If I buy a 16x9 wide screen TV, will I get rid of the black bars forever?

 

[Matthew_F]

I think Doug saids he has a Ultravision 65" screen because there is no 61". They come in 57" or 65" and I happen to own the 57" of the TWX series. Oh! don't forget to lower down the contrast on the TV because it's at 100% default and that will cause burn in quickly if you're not careful and even worse with static things like the black bar.

I would say now 100% contrast is also known as "torch mode"!! =)