Widescreen DVD's and my WideScreen TV.... (1 Viewer)

[James_Barcus]

I had a quick few questions... I have a JVC 48" Widescreen HDTV and now have a growing collection of widescreen dvd's. But there seems to be a problem with a few of the widescreen dvd's.. First off, Space Balls, the dvd has "WIDESCREEN" and "STANDARD" printed on either side of the DVD.. I put it in with the "WIDESCREEN" facing up and I get a stretched image, same if I put it in with "STANDARD" facing up. I have a brand new Sony DVP-NS715P and it plays all my other widescreen DVD's perfectly. It does this with Misery, and The BreakFast Club. All widescreen DVD's and the breakfast club case says "Enhanced for Widescreen Tv's" I believe. What if anything can I do to fix this? I don't have it hooked up via Component cables, just standard video cables as I'm low on cash and only one set of component cables. So I don't have Progressive scan turned on obviously. But what can fix this? Do some widescreen DVD's mislead and just put the black bars on the top and bottom to make it "widescreen"? What's even funnier, is in the paper that is in the Space Balls case has a comparison graph that is used to show how much more picture you see with a widescreen. I'm getting quite annoyed with this obviously. Thanks for any help anyone can give..:b


__________


Here's a little something from a review of SpaceBalls I found.. "MGM has shelled out a two sider here, with a widescreen and a Pan & Scan on opposite sides. The widescreen side is not, however, anamorphic, making detail lower than what we are accustomed to (we are very spoiled); but we're talking about Spaceballs here people." Not Anamorphic?? Does that mean it's not truly widescreen? Meaning I have to watch it in 4:3 (normal) ratio on my widescreen tv?

 

[Don_Berg]

Sounds like your problem widescreen DVD is an older non-anamorphic disc, while the newer ones that say "enhanced for widescreen TVs" are anamorphic discs. Both types are widescreen, but the older non-anamorphic is really a 4:3 frame with bigger black bars on the top and bottom of the frame - the widescreen image is letterboxed. For the newer anamorphic DVDs (marked enhanced for widescreen TVs) they stretch the image vertically so that the entire frame matches the 16:9 aspect ratio - this removes most or all of the top and bottom black bars and gives higher resolution. But both formats are widescreen. Your TV however has to adjust differently for the two types, unless you have a DVD player that adjust for it - most don't however.

Your HDTV should have some stretch/zoom modes you can select to adjust for the two types of DVDs. Normally FULL mode is used for the anamorphic discs and that seems to be what you are using. For the non-anamorphic DVDs as well as titles that are 4:3 AR (like some extra features/documentaries on DVDs) you need to change the mode on your HDTV that vertically stretches and cuts off some of the top and bottom to get the correct non-stretched look for those. Look in your HDTV set's user manual for how to change the format/mode for this. Some models don't allow you to change the mode with a progressive DVD player input, for those you need to switch to interlaced mode first. A few DVD players (like the JVC DVD models) can do the formatting automatically or manually instead of the TV set.

 

[Paul.Little]

That is exactly the problem, James. Some DVDs have a non-animorphic (not widescreen enhanced) widescreen version. Nobody understands why any studio would ever release such a thing, yet they exist. The original release of Armageddon, for example. These DVDs are designed for watching on a 4:3 TV only. You will have to play around with the stretch modes on your TV to find a mode that works for those DVDs. You may even need to go into your DVD player's menu and set it to 4:3 when watching those movies in order to get it to look right with the zoom mode of the TV. A definite pain in the posterior regions!

 

[Francois L]

Some of the movies of James Cameron seems to be attracted to the letterbox mess. (Titanic, The Abyss, True Lies).

 

[James_Barcus]

Ok, I understand now.. Don't understand why they would release a widescreen dvd and not make it anamorphic.. here's another one. I have the original release of The Breakfast Club.. It's Widescreen, says so on the front cover and I looked on the back to see if I could find it anywhere that said anamorphic or enhanced for widescreen tv's.. I can't recall finding either of those, might be, I'll have to double check. What I did find was a picture of a widescreen with "1.85:1" typed in the middle... Isn't that widescreen format? I get a stretched image with that movie also while watching it..

 

[Don_Berg]

Unless on the back fine print it says "enhanced for widescreen sets" or similar - not just "widescreen" or "1.85:1" it is non-anamoporhic. Its rare nowadays, but they were pretty common a few years ago.