Why is one 2.35:1 movie larger than another? (1 Viewer)

[Brico F]

Why do some 2.35:1 movies display a larger picture than others? Most of the 2.35:1 widescreen movies I have show the small horizontal black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, they are very small and after a while watching you almost forget they are there. "Dances with Wolves" is one such movie.

A few 2.35:1 movies have much larger black bars at the top and bottom. Its almost as much black as picture being displayed. "The Green Berets" and "Titanic" are 2 examples.

My TV is a Sony 50" LCD HDTV and my DVD player is set for 16x9 display. Thanks.

 

[Leo Kerr]

But is the display recognizing the 16x9 signal properly? On the films with the larger picture with thin bars, are the people tall and skinny?

Or on the ones with the smaller picture, are the people overly short and fat?

If either is true, then somewhere, one of the devices or the other is NOT handling the 16x9/4x3 signals properly.

I'm not familiar enough with the titles in question to be able to help you out there; I thought that Titanic was a non-anamorphic title, so if they're fat, everyone is being stretched. If they're normal, then the 16x9 titles actually aren't being processed properly.

Leo

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The original Titanic was non-anamorphic, which means it was letterboxed (the 2:35:1 was inside a 4:3 frame, not a 16:9 frame) not "enhanced for 16:9", so this is what you are seeing. Use the "Zoom" function (uniform zoom with no stretching) on your set to view non-anamorphic films.

 

[Brico F]

So to get the biggest true 16x9 picture, I need to make sure the movies I buy are labeled anamorphic or enhanced for 16x9 TVs? Thanks.

 

[JohnRice]

Non anamorphic really doesn't sound like the problem. If it were, you would get windowboxing (black around all four sides of the image) rather than just more black above and below. Are you sure you have things set up right? Because if not, you have bigger problems than the black bars, as it could be improperly stretching the image on non anamorphic discs. Hopefully, that would be so obvious to you, the result would be unwatcheable.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

He'd only get windowboxing if he is in 4:3 mode. He's probably in "Full" or 16:9 mode which would give him fat black bars and short people. Plus, I'm 100% positive that the original Titanic release is non-anamorphic.

 

[nolesrule]

The original Titanic release and The Green Berets are both non-anamorphic DVDs. I would agree with Jeff that the issue is the TV display mode that the non-anamorphic titles are being viewed in.