Why oh why do we spend money on wide screen TVs, when you buy a DVD and you still have the bloody empty black stripes above and below.

Just watched The Two Towers, they even put the subtitles in the lower black stripe.

Many of the films shown on TV in widescreen fit perfectly but you spend money on a widescreen DVD/video and it just doesn't fit.

WHY??????

 

i get around it by having several screen modes on my sony flatscreen.

'zoom' chops off any borders left by the widescreen.
Nice.
But is annoying on other tvs yes

 

An anamorphic print of the film is what you want (which I'm sure it will be for LOTR) plus you need a digital telly or a projector for that to work to the full.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...hic/index.html

 

But then you would miss out on the subtitles below the picture and the picture ends up being chopped/squashed/stretched.

Surely DVDs should be supplied in a format that plain and simply fits perfectly into a widescreen TV.

Am I missing something?

 

A standard widescreen TV has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (16x9) and LOTR TT was filmed with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. So when you watch LOTR how it should be watched on a widescreen TV you need to have black bars at the top and bottom. If you processed the image so that it properly fitted a 1.78:1 aspect ratio you would loose part of the picture and so would not see the full cinematic version. Even with a projector you would still see the black bars as most are only 1.78:1 (16x9).

This seams to be a problem with people in the US so you can normally buy two versions of the film 4:3 pan and scan or 16:9 anamorphic. You can normally only get the anamorphic release in the UK as these are the most popular.

You can make it fit, just use the zoom mode on your widescreen TV and tell your DVD player you have a 4:3 TV.

You won't want SKY movies then as all of the films are now widescreen due to consumer demand, and so are the box office films.

Si

 

Thanks guys.

But there is still the issue of the subtitles being displayed in the bottom black bar. Whilst I appreciate the situation would be a lot worse on a normal telly I can't help feeling that widescreen isn't quite where it should be. Films/DVDs/videos that claim to be widescreen should fit the hardware without having to tell porkies to the DVD player or distorting the picture.

 

just press the subtitle button on the DVD remote until it vanishes

 

NO NO NO - the subtitles in LOTR translate Elvish to English, they are essential (unless you are fluent) and can't be turned off.

 

ah! sorry must have fallen asleep at that bit of the film............prob 'cos it is p!sh

 

On my Sony I can use the 'up' button to scroll the screen up, eliminating the top border but keeping the bottom and showing the missing part of the subtitles.

 

As far as I know the subtitles on a DVD are controlled by the actual DVD player and are not present on the actual film. This is why they appear in the black bit at the bottom.

The main problem with widescreen is you have four different aspect ratio formats which are used. So you have to have a happy medium between the four.

When you watch LOTR with the bars at the top and the bottom on your DVD player you should be watching the film in the correct aspect ratio so the film does not appear to be squashed/streched etc. If you fill the image to fit the screen you then loose the edges and don't see all the film.

It's also very difficult to manufacture even widescreen CRT sets let alone a set that can display full movie widescreen. You may see plasma or LCD displays that use this aspect ratio but then they will take up a lot more space.

I'm happy to have the black bars at the top and the bottom because I know I'm getting the full version of the film and not a hacked together "for TV" version.

Si

 

You could learn Elvish?!!

Ratman

 

That DigitalBits is an excellent site

 

Wonder if you can buy TV surrounds to cover the black stripes?

 

Stick on carbon black border covers.

 

LOL Why not just watch it in the wrong aspect to get rid of the bars?

That's what most people I know do drives me nuts.

I'd rather see black bars than squashed people

Sorry - pet hate of mine

 

IIRC there's 3 general types of picture.
Normal = 4:3 ratio.
Widescreen = 16x9.
Cinemascope = even wider than widescreen (i.e. cinema size). Some get converted to w/s but many don't (e.g. LOTR above).

People have been fed loads of bulls**t for years saying that widescreen is like 'cinema' etc. which it isn't. It seems that what people 'really' want is cinemascope TV's which either don't exist or are very rare.

 

HA!! So we have been fed bullsh1t - as I suspected.

Bloody Japs

 

Apparently buliding a widescreen (16:9) CRT tube is hard enough, and is heavy. Buliding a Cinema asepct widescreen TV is even more difficult and expensive which is why it has not been done. Why they don't build plasma or lcd cinema apect screens is another question.

If you had a cinema aspect screen you would probably complain about the bars at the side of the screen and not at the top for normal 4:3 TV 14:9 TV or 16:9 Films.

Si

 

I just watch the films in total darkness - no black bars that I can see

 

Yep, just set the TV up properly (brightness, contrast etc.) and watch in a darkened room. Helps if you have a black TV rather than the current, all the rage silver rubbish

Sony rep I spoke to a while back hinted at the possibility of their new LCD screens being available as "cinema" rather than 16:9.

Cheers

Ian

 

That explains the hairs on the backs of your hand then

 

there will always be bars with some films whatever tv you use, because they are all differennt shapes.

if you watch the film how it was in the cinema, then it will only fill a widescreen tv if its about 1.78:1, or 1.85:1.

if it makes you feel any better, the bars woud be a LOT bigger on a 'normal' tv