Need help with some Panasonic 55 settings.

[acritzer]

I've recently come upon a strange issue. It seems like my BD player will not correctly play widescreen dvds. The agrivating thing is that I don't recall having this problem before, or having changed the settings at all. Was trying to play an older dvd, Overboard (widescreen) and No Way Out (widescreen). Neither one would show up as a widescreen, but rather showed up with 4:3 bars on the sides.
Seemed to play just fine upstairs on my Insignia.

Then, came upon a setting on my BD player...under TV aspect. Was properly set as 16:9, but also had 16:9 full....switching to this seemed to fix it, but the description in the manual states 16:9 Full- video recording for 4:3 aspect screen is displayed as a horizontally stretched 16:9 image.
The problem is, the widescreen dvd shouldn't be a (4:3 recording).

If you've managed to read this pain in the rear description, any thoughts?

[DavePS3]

I'm wondering if the specific titles you've tried are actually not in anamorphic 16:9. They may be titles that were released in 'widescreen' only. Early DVD releases were not and some were never re-released in anamorphic like True Lies for example. I'm thinking your older panel may not have been 1080p and early on, you had settings that zoomed the non-anamorphic video in, to fill the screen. Normally in this case, with non-anamorphic, you see a smaller image with black on all 4 sides but the fact that you're seeing a 4:3 image suggests the panel may not be set at 1920x1080p. Most are automatic via an HDMI. Anyway, those are my initial thoughts.

[acritzer]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

I'm wondering if the specific titles you've tried are actually not in anamorphic 16:9. They may be titles that were released in 'widescreen' only. Early DVD releases were not and some were never re-released in anamorphic like True Lies for example. I'm thinking your older panel may not have been 1080p and early on, you had settings that zoomed the non-anamorphic video in, to fill the screen. Normally in this case, with non-anamorphic, you see a smaller image with black on all 4 sides but the fact that you're seeing a 4:3 image suggests the panel may not be set at 1920x1080p. Most are automatic via an HDMI. Anyway, those are my initial thoughts.

Sorry for the ignorance, but there are widescreen dvds that don't always fill a 16:9, left to right? I also was thinking it had to do with the age of the discs, and I actually think they are both done by MGM. But then I tried them upstairs and figured there was something goofed up on my settings.
As far as I know the TV and BD player settings are all correct.

Should I try a newer widescreen dvd on the original settings and see if it fills, left to right? If it does, I'd assume that means it's some kind of old dvd thing?

[DavePS3]

Yeah, I'd try a much newer disc like a Blu-Ray and see what you get. Early DVD's were in either 4:3 or widescreen (letterbox) like Laserdiscs were and even a few VHS' but the difference was that non-anamorphic discs meant you had lines of resolution running even in the black bars so the image along with the black bars, filled the screen before HD sets came into play with even 480p or better 1080i. With the new HD sets emerging, those transfers to disc needed to take advantade of the resolution jump so all the lines of that resolution were only within the picture itself and none in the black bars. By the time 720p popped up, most discs were done this way.

Anamorphic was introduced just after television was invented. It was a gimmick to get people back into theaters, much like the 3D today. It was when the wider screens were introduced at the theaters,to accompany the films. Basically, the camera used a lens that squished in the image and the theater's projector had the opposite lens to pull it back out. Cinerama, Todd AO etc... they all used this procedure but it was up to the director what aspect ratio he wanted to use. There are actually about 17 different ratios including IMAX and 4:3. If you look at Ben Hur, the ratio is massive.

Anyway, on letterbox transfers, no anamorphic correction was done and many older discs (and one recent one 'Charley Varrick' was released 4:3 which angered many) have taken that widescreen image and cut it in half, zoomed in so it fills your TV vertically. The term Pan & Scan comes from this. They take that 4:3 frame (TV) and slide it around or pop it in and out of the focus point they decide they want from a widescreen print. Many people therefore thought that black bars meant they were losing picture at the top and bottom but we all know you gain at the sides, with the image pulled back from you so it fits your HD display, horizontally.

[acritzer]

I'm not completely sure we're talking about the same issues after reading through your description. I am not concerned with the black bars on the top and bottom, and blu-rays are just fine. I guess I don't understand the difference between widescreen, and widescreen anamorphic. Either way don't they fit 16:9 TV's left to right?

Again, not worried about top to bottom fit, just the left to right. I just don't ever remember having a "widescreen" dvd not show up widescreen. Doesn't seem like a resolution issue.

[acritzer]

Can anyone else help explain this to me?

After searching I've found that Overboard is listed as DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen. No Way Out is shown as DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen....with a double side. However No Way Out played the same on both sides, and they both had gray bars on the left and right, and black bars on the top and bottom.

[acritzer]

Well. I tried some newer DVDs and they worked just fine with the old setting. So it must have something to do with the older "widescreen" format? Huh.

[DavePS3]

Yup. Widescreen is not the same as 16:9 anamorphic.