Widescreen display still has Bars! Why? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Schaffer]

Your Pioneer 16/9 set does the same thing as my Sony 16/9 set in Full. It displays anamorphic material properly proportioned--2:35 movies appear with smallish black bars at top and bottom, with normal geometry (circles are circular). 4/3 material, like an analog tv channel or a non-anamorphic dvd (regardless of aspect ratio) is stretched only in the horizontal plane to fit the screen from side to side.

A non-anamorphic widescreen dvd places a letterboxed image in the middle of a 4/3 frame. Full mode on the tv stretches this in only the horizontal plane--the image fits the screen from side to side. So the black bars on the top and bottom of a non-anamorphic letterboxed dvd are going to be the same size as they would be on a 4/3 set--small for 1:85 and pretty big for 2:35, and the actual image looks short and fat--circles appear as flattish ovals.

Zoom mode on the tv just adds a vertical stretch to the horizontal stretch that is done in full mode. If the original image being displayed has a 4/3 aspect ratio, then image is lost off the top and bottom.

In the case of letterboxed non-anamorphic dvd, the black bars at top and bottom are part of the 4/3 image, and either disappear entirely when the aspect ratio is 1:85 or become much smaller in the case of 2:35. Circles are once again round. No image is cropped other than the black bars or parts of the black bars.

Zooming a non-anamorphic letterbox dvd does not crop any picture information compared to the same aspect ratio film in Full mode on an anamorphic dvd. Most sets do a raster spread as part of the zooming process--sorta the opposite of the 16/9 "squeeze mode" on many 4/3 sets--which makes scanlines more visible and thus the pq isn't as good for nonanamorphic dvds as it is on anamorphic ones, but the image is the same size and is not cropped.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Mike, I thought I made it quite clear that I DO have a 16:9 model, Pioneer SD-582-HD5. Sorry if it wasn't.

Steve, your description knocked me for a loop as it was a bit on the technical side, at least on my first read. However, after re-reading it, you seem to be right. 2.35 Ana I do get small bars in FULL (1.85 Ana no bars in FULL). And 1.85 non-ana I have small bars and 2.35 non-ana fairly large bars, as previously described. So I watch non-ana in ZOOM and yes, I realize that the PQ is lower, that's why Anamorphic is so desirable.

 

[Michael Reuben]

You did. Then you proceeded to argue with my description of how a 16:9 TV displays non-anamorphic letterboxed material in full mode, so I gave you three possible explanations for what you were seeing. Turns out my initial description correctly assessed your situation (as I suspected). Steve Schaffer has kindly provided you with an even more detailed description of the same phenomenon. Case closed.

M.

 

[Gary Mui]

Laymen terms:

16 / 9 = 1.78:1

NOT 2.35:1
NOT 1.85:1

1.85 is close enough so that the image is scaled to fit the screen. But 2.35 is too much, and would ruin the film if stretched to fill the screen.

So until they make TVs that are 2.35:1, then there will be empty spaces above and below the film.

I have a 65" 16:9 RPTV, and a 2:351 film looks a helluva lot bigger on my 65", compared to the same film on my 20" (4:3) LCD.