Letterbox is annoying, even on new 61" TV!

I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?

Also, I tried playing a James Taylor HD-DVD, and it hung
repeatedly. I had read about this problem in the reviews
of this movie in a review, but chalked it up to an
inexperienced user.


Overall though, I'm very happy and amazed by the picture!

"James Egan" wrote in message
. ..
I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?

=========================
Many movies are 2.35:1/2.40:1.
They will be letterboxed even on a 16:9 (1.78:1) set.
There is nothing wrong with that.
It is a wonderful thing!
Besides, that still uses about 75% of the screen (which is more than half).
Zooming or worrying about black bars is a fools game.
==========================

James Egan wrote:
I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?

Also, I tried playing a James Taylor HD-DVD, and it hung
repeatedly. I had read about this problem in the reviews
of this movie in a review, but chalked it up to an
inexperienced user.


Overall though, I'm very happy and amazed by the picture!

Was the picture height about 75% of the screen height? If it was half,
then there is something wrong. The movie was a cinemascope movie meaning
it has an Original Aspect Ratio (OAR) of 2.35 to 1 (or 2.40 to 1). For a
16:9 (1.78:1) screen, the height of the picture should be 1.77/2.35=
0.75 of the screen. This is good because you are seeing the movie the
way it was presented in the theater with no cropping.

If you had a regular DVD player, I would suspect that you had it set
to a 4:3 TV. This is a common mistake for people who get wide screen
16:9 TVs to connect them to the DVD player, but not change the settings
to 16:9 output in the DVD player. But you have an XBox HD-DVD player so
I would have thought it was fixed to display a 16:9 screen. I would
double check the settings for the XBox just to be sure.

Most modern movies are made in two aspect ratios: 1.85:1 and 2.35:1.
The 1.85:1 movies are close enough to the 1.78:1 screen, that they
cropped the picture slightly or leave a thin bar at the bottom when
transferring it to a DVD or HD video. The 2.35:1 movies should be
letterboxed if the picture is not cropped or are sometimes shot "open
matte" which I will leave you to google. Unfortunately some premium
cable channels - HBO-HD is often guilty of this - will crop the 2.35:1
picture for the the 16:9 screen. Really messes up some movies.

Other OARs for film are 1.37:1 (used up to the 1950s), 1.66:1, 2.0:1,
2.20:1, and superwide 2.76:1 (used famously for Ben Hur). In a proper
presentation, these will be shown pillarboxed or letterboxed on the HD
TV. But you will be seeing the movie as it was presented in the theater.

Alan F

James Egan wrote:

I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?


When I first started looking into HDTV, I found some good, basic explanation
info he

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-...io.html?page=2

--

Mike Gratis

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 09:57:59 -0500, "Peter H. Coffin"
wrote:

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:20:39 -0400, James Egan wrote:
I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?

Your screen is 1.7:1. The movie's 2.35:1 How is it supposed to use the
whole screen?



Maybe the studio releasing the movie on DVD could cut off the very
left and very right sides, rotate them sideways and run them along the
tops and bottoms of the finished picture. That would fill up the
whole screen.

Or, if the guy really wants to have his TV filled, he can wait until
some HD channel creates a 16x9 pan&scan version of the film. At least
having some professionals decide (on a shot by shot basis) which
subset of the film you should be watching is better than just randomly
zooming in on the center chunk.

Actually, who is it that creates the pan & scan versions we see on
TNT-HD and so on?

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:02:10 GMT, Alan F
wrote:

The 2.35:1 movies should be
letterboxed if the picture is not cropped or are sometimes shot "open
matte" which I will leave you to google. Unfortunately some premium
cable channels - HBO-HD is often guilty of this - will crop the 2.35:1
picture for the the 16:9 screen. Really messes up some movies.

Is it actually HBO that makes this decision? Not the studio or
whoever is selling the film to HBO?

I don't think they simply snip off the left and right sides. I think
that someone is making a conscious decision about which elements are
most important for each shot. I rememeber, back when E.T. first came
to VHS, hearing that Spielberg himself was involved in the pan & scan
decision making.

"James Egan" wrote in message
. ..
I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?

Also, I tried playing a James Taylor HD-DVD, and it hung
repeatedly. I had read about this problem in the reviews
of this movie in a review, but chalked it up to an
inexperienced user.


Overall though, I'm very happy and amazed by the picture!

I can't believe that some people are STILL asking this question and acting
as if there is something wrong. I also find it hard to believe that someone
would spend the kind of money that he did and NOT know what the hell he was
getting into. It boggles the mind, but then again, I have a buddy who buys
things just to impress people and he does not know what it is or does as
long as it costs and not many have it.

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:12:23 +0000, Mike Gratis wrote:

James Egan wrote:

I just got my new Samsung 61" DLP TV. I won't be getting my
DirecTV hardware upgraded for another two weeks, so I connected
the existing standard def equipment, and also a new XBox 360
HD-DVD player. I played the HD movie "Troy" a bit, just to
see the picture. I was amazed that with the letterbox, only
about 1/2 the screen was used for the actual picture. I was
able to "zoom" the picture some, but you loose quality then.
I thought that with the rectangular shaped TV's that the picture
would use the entire screen?


When I first started looking into HDTV, I found some good, basic explanation
info he

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-...io.html?page=2



Yes, I'm familiar with what letterbox is, but was hoping it would not be
as severe with a large TV. You can read about a great deal of this
and a great deal more at wikipedia.org:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterbox

-Thanks

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 14:05:05 -0400, Guest wrote:

I can't believe that some people are STILL asking this question and acting
as if there is something wrong. I also find it hard to believe that someone
would spend the kind of money that he did and NOT know what the hell he was
getting into. It boggles the mind, but then again, I have a buddy who buys
things just to impress people and he does not know what it is or does as
long as it costs and not many have it.


I can't believe that someone is so stupid and so immature. Of course
I'm familiar with letterbox, but not with letterbox and LARGE screen
TV's. It was more of a comment. You are so off base with your asinine
comment, one would think that you are some immature childish juvenile,
but I doubt it.

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:27:51 -0700, Richard C. wrote:
=========================
Many movies are 2.35:1/2.40:1.
They will be letterboxed even on a 16:9 (1.78:1) set.
There is nothing wrong with that.
It is a wonderful thing!
Besides, that still uses about 75% of the screen (which is more than half).
Zooming or worrying about black bars is a fools game.
==========================


I think directors think that letterbox is wonderful, and everyone
that watches their movies doesn't. g

Some of them are REALLY ridiculous. The movie Troy looked like
I was loosing 40-50% of the picture. The good thing is on a
61" set, the picture is really large to begin with!