Black bars with widesceen movies

I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars
at the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this
happen?

sharon wrote:
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars
at the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this
happen?

Not all movies have the same aspect ratio as your television.
Your set is 16:9, many movies have other sizes. It doesn't
mean that you aren't seeing everything that is there. In fact,
that's why you get the bars, to show the full picture.

Chip

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"sharon" wrote in message ...
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars at
the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this happen?

because not all films are filmed in the same shape as your tv - ever noticed
that when you go to the cinema some films are wider than others?
that's your answer.
best thing is to watch the movie - not the bars. the only way they could
make the movie fit your tv screen would be by chopping off the sides - and
that wouldn't be a good idea.

--
Gareth.

That fly... is your magic wand.
http://www.last.fm/user/dsbmusic/

That's the point of widescreen-- they don't cut the picture. Your
digital camera does it too, whenever you turn the image from taking
the picture the tall way.

You should know the basic ratios they use in movie theaters: 1.33
(TV), 1.85 (HD), and 2.35 cinemascope.

Black bars are used on widescreen whenever the ratios do not match up.
However, the system may be incorrectly set up if the image that is
shown is a different ratio, and shows other signs of distortion. Since
you say this only happens sometimes, and you're not complaining of any
distortion, I believe your system to be correctly set up. Should
distortion be occuring primarily to older DVDs, it's because they are
not formatted for 16x9 and are being mistakenly stretched by your
player to accomodate.

So black bars are just a way for the home viewer to insure that they
are viewing the same images seen in the movie theater. That is the
point of widescreen editions. If you hate the black bars that much,
you can alway do what the theaters did, and trim the view of any black
bars with a decorative curtain. : )

On 2007-12-30, sharon wrote:
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars
at the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this
happen?

See: http://tinyurl.com/3y63uf

-Bill
--
Sattre Press Pagan Papers
http://sattre-press.com/ by Kenneth Grahame
http://sattre-press.com/pp.html

"sharon" wrote in message ...
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars at
the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this happen?


Not all films are shot in the same aspect ratio. Unless the original
material was shot in the same ratio as your set, you'll have bars.

In article ,
"XPickel" wrote:

"sharon" wrote in message ...
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars at
the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this happen?


Not all films are shot in the same aspect ratio. Unless the original
material was shot in the same ratio as your set, you'll have bars.

Or a distorted picture.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

On Dec 30, 10:02*am, sharon wrote:
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black
bars
at the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does
this
happen?

Download this first and take a look.

http://www.adshollywood.com/images/r...ect_ratios.pdf

Your DVDs start out as standard def. If they are 'wider' than 4:3
(VERY likely) and if 'letterbox' (not pan scan), they will look like
one of the ---column 2--- images on a standard def 4:3 screen.

What some HDTVs do with the image is fit the 4:3 into the 16:9. So,
take your column 2 image and plunk it into the BOTTOM image in column
1 and then there are bars on all 4 sides -- undistorted but worst case
size wise.

Your TV appears to 'zoom' which expands the image proportionately in
both axes to fill the horizontal and reduce if not eliminate the top/
bottom black bars as well.

Remember that changing aspect ratios while not distorting the image
will _always_ leave some black bars OR clip a little off either L/R or
T/B.

FWIW, the DVD software on the PC (connected to a Samsung 50" DLP) we
use to watch performs the zoom in the computer and does a 'best fit'
on the TV but often leaves T/B black bars.

Happy New Year

GG

"Tom Stiller" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"XPickel" wrote:

"sharon" wrote in message ...
I have a large widescreen HD TV and the movies I rent are always
widescreen. Yet, sometimes when I play the movies I still get black bars
at
the top an bottom of the screen. It is very annoying. Why does this
happen?


Not all films are shot in the same aspect ratio. Unless the original
material was shot in the same ratio as your set, you'll have bars.

Or a distorted picture.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF


I can't stand when they squash or stretch images.

On Dec 31, 12:21*am, "XPickel" wrote:
"Tom Stiller" wrote in message

...



In article ,
"XPickel" wrote:

Not all films are shot in the same aspect ratio. * *Unless the
original
material was shot in the same ratio as your set, you'll have
bars.

Or a distorted picture.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = *5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 *7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0
C7CF

I can't stand when they squash or stretch images.

I can't remember the last time I saw squashed/stretched images on any
station in LA. I DID see one drama show that had a plasma as part of
the show and the image on IT was stretched though the actual show was
correct.

GG