Non Anamorphic stuff....... (1 Viewer)

[Sean Conklin]

I got a new High definition Widescreen, and progressive scan DVD player.

It's awesome, but what is the best way to watch non anamorphic widescreen DVD's? So far it seems like zoom works the best.

I guess non anamorphic is being squeezed and I either have to set my TV to 4:3 or zoom.

Great movies like Armageddon and Ever After are non anamorphic and they don't look so hot. Bummer.

I have been into DVD for quite some time, just haven't stepped up until recently.

But man what an awesome picture progressive makes with an anamorphic transfer!

Oh yeah I got the 30" widescreen Samsung HDTV, and a JVC progressive scan player.

 

[Glenn Shoemake]

Most of the old DVDs are being rereleased in the new Anamorphic Standard. I know rebuying a DVD sucks but it seems that the new prices are much less. I picked up Dumb and Dumber in Anamorphic Widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound for $9.99 at Best Buy.
Widescreen Letterbox is terrible and I avoid dvds in this format.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

You have a few choices. You can either (1) use one of the zoom modes on your TV to enlarge the picture without distortion (it's called TheaterWide 2 on my Toshiba, not sure about your Samsung), (2) set your TV to 4x3 viewing mode and watch a smaller, letterboxed and windowboxed picture (yuck), or (3) get a DVD player with a built-in scaling/zoom feature.

The Panasonic RP-91 and some JVC models offer the feature in #3 (there are probably other manufacturers, too). I have the RP-91, and its built-in scaler can make a good non-anamorphic transfer look almost as good as an anamorphic one. Both The Abyss and Planet Of The Apes look great on my 56-inch Toshiba. Of course, a lousy transfer will still look bad -- garbage in, garbage out.

I still have about 80 non-anamorphic widescreen titles in my collection, so this feature is a must for my system.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Thanks, I don't have theater wide setting. And zoom 1 isn't available on my TV with a progressive signal. :frowning:

I have the JVC and it doesn't scale, I can live with zoom, I suppose, however I could exchange my JVC xc500 something or other DVD player for a better model with the scaling feature.

Is Armageddon Criterion anamorphic?
Does anyone know if Ever After is available in anamorphic now (my copy is fairly old).

I hope we get some new anamorphic releases on these titles and more.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Is Armageddon Criterion anamorphic?

No, it's a non-anamorphic transfer.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Thanks Scott, man that's bunk.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Is there a way for me to use progressive and zoom? My TV says this is not available when it's getting a progressive signal.

Doesn't interlaced zoom suck compared to a nice anamorphic? I think so.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

hahha. That's great. lol. You use that as a reference disc do you?

Now are you talking about the quality of non-anamorphic transfers or the bars?

 

[Sean Conklin]

Now are you talking about the quality of non-anamorphic transfers or the bars?

With a 16X9 TV, non anamorphic material is sqeezed with the bars resulting in a picture that is too small and not the correct size.

Non anamorphic material on a 4:3 set looks great usually, it is not a question of quality, just that non anamorphic material does not contain enough resolution to be sqeezed, it is merely matted 4:3 material.

Right?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

I don't quite follow your questions, but anamorphic widescreen is one way a film is presented in widescreen. I'm not the best source for this info here, but let me summarize the basic anyway, because it seems you might have a couple things mixed up. Widescreen DVDs may have black bars regardless if they are anamorphic or not, and their size depends on the aspect ratio of the film. 4:3 material will have bars on the side, films that are 16:9 will have no bars, but most films are still wider, so they will have bars at the top and bottom.



Well, anamorphic or not, depending on the aspect ratio there will be the bars on the top and bottom. There should be no "squeezing" going on. Usually the squeeze or zoom is so that you can fill the whole 16:9 screen that still isn't wide enough for most movies. There should not be any bars on the sides though, and the size should be the same. Non-anamorphic widescreen titles that have the same aspect ratio should take up exactly the same amount of "space" on your screen, with black bars of the same size. Does that help?

 

[Sean Conklin]

Thanks Chris, but I am quite familiar with matting techniques and aspect ratio's, I didn't mean to give the impression that I didn't know.

It's just that now that I have a 16X9 TV I notice that non anamorphic sources do not display correctly unless I zoom or set TV for 4:3 (which is horrible). In zoom mode the picture is obviously not as good as a progressive anamorphic picture.

Non anamorphic does not contain the squeezable resolution that anamorphic does, a widescreen TV when set to wide will squeeze any material, but non anamorphic contains matted black bars instead of incorporating them into the entire anamorphic process, resulting in a distorted matted mess if you own a 16x9 without scaling capabilities.

The bars on non anamorphic sources are the same size as would be displayed on a 4:3, unless zoom or scaling is used.
The black bars on anamorphic material are incorporated into the picture and are part of the resolution, on non anamorphic material I believe the black bars are not a part of the pictures resolution.

BTW, 2.35:1 still has small black bars on a 16x9, only 1.85 and similar will completely fill the screen. And yes I do have my DVD player set to 16x9.

But thanks Chris for your response, it's much appreciated.

Oh yeah, great news! Ever After has been re released in anamorphic!

Now if we can just work on Armageddon. And I'm still waiting for Titanic anamorphic to be released.

 

[Sean Conklin]

What a doofus I am :b

If I set my DVD player to "Auto" Progressive and my TV to 16x9 "Normal" instead of 16x9 "Auto", it frames non anamorphic material correctly in progressive mode.

I knew a little experimenting and I would figure it out.

It's not exactly scaling, but it's progressive and the picture is letterboxed all the way around but looks great.

Maybe it scales too if I set my DVD VFP to Cinema, I'll try it.

Thanks again.

 

[Matt DeVillier]

It's not exactly scaling, but it's progressive and the picture is letterboxed all the way around but looks great.

actually, it is what people around here refer to as "scaling."

the only issue with the XV-S500 is that discs which are letterboxed and flagged as 4x3 will not be "scaled" by your player, but will instead be windowboxed (bars on all 4 sides). The workaround is to then turn on the zoom on the player, but on the '500 the zoom icon does not disappear. On the '600 and '900 the zoom icon disappears after 5 seconds, so if you can still return your player and pick up one of those instead you might want to

 

[Sean Conklin]

Thanks Matt.

Actually my 500 zoom icon does disappear, but zoom seems to work only when not in progressive.

I will have to fiddle around with it, the only title I have left to worry about is Armageddon, and maybe Con-Air, but I will check it out tonight.

So really non anamorphic widescreen is treated like 4:3 material huh?

My player has an option to hide all the icons if I want, I like them if they go away after a few seconds.

I guess I still have a lot to learn.

My player is 10 bit, 54 Mhz, would I benefit from getting the Panasonic RP? Or Sony? The Sony is 12 bit 100 something Mhz.