Stretch Mode or Dot by Dot

[DeeChizzle]

I have a question for the home theater experts out there.

These are the two view modes that I'm considering watching my BD movies.

Stretch Mode (Manual definition): Suitable for viewing widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio programs, stretch mode will show very thin black lines on the top and bottom of the screen:

Dot by Dot (Manual definition): Detects the resolution of the signal and displays an image with the same number of pixels on the screen.

When I set my LCD to "Stretch" mode I tend to get a slightly bigger picture allowing me to maximize my screen size and the PQ seems to be pretty good.

However when I set it to "Dot by Dot" the Aspect ratio becomes smaller, especially with 2.35.1 and 2.40.1 movies (I get about an inch more of black band on the top and bottom of the screen) However I don't know if my eyes are deceiving me or whether it's all psychological, but sometimes I think the PQ is equal to the PQ when set to "Stretch" mode. Then again I sometimes think the PQ looks better when set to "Dot by Dot". Based on the manual and the equipment I'm using, I should be using the "Dot by Dot" mode...right?

[CptGreedle]

This belongs in the Black Bars sticky.

First off, anything that stretches will distort the image. Always keep it at the same aspect ratio, it will look a lot better.

[theknub]

go with viewing in original aspect ratio. using any stretching, you will lose parts of the picture which may or may not be important. second, stretch-o-vision can cause people to look like oompa-loompas and many other whimsical creatures. lastly, you do lose picture clarity with stretching it.

don't worry about trying to fill the screen.

[JimSD]

I think the Stretch mode would not distort the image in this case. It is meant for HD programs, anamorphic DVDs, etc. However, the Dot by Dot mode will be best for Blu-ray movies because it has no overscan. I believe the Stretch mode uses a bit of overscan which you won't need for Blu-rays. But for HD TV channels that have a 4:3 program you might want to use Stretch to get rid of the annoying white stuff at the top that is closed-captioning info. If you had a SD 4:3 program, then the Stretch mode would definitely distort the image.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

I usually stick with dot by dot because I can see the pixels during stretch mode. But if there's black bars surrounding the whole screen I just switch it to stretch

[Frode]

When you use the dot by dot mode you're letting the image be shown directly as input on the screen, without any scaling being done. You thus get slightly better PQ, as there's no scaling involved. You'll want to use the other mode if there are things at the edges being seen that you normally shouldn't because of overscan (you'll recognize them when you see them, trust me).

[DeeChizzle]

Thanks for the great feedback so far.

[dtrush]

Originally Posted by DeeChizzle

I have a question for the home theater experts out there.

These are the two view modes that I'm considering watching my BD movies.

Stretch Mode (Manual definition): Suitable for viewing widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio programs, stretch mode will show very thin black lines on the top and bottom of the screen:

Dot by Dot (Manual definition): Detects the resolution of the signal and displays an image with the same number of pixels on the screen.

When I set my LCD to "Stretch" mode I tend to get a slightly bigger picture allowing me to maximize my screen size and the PQ seems to be pretty good.

However when I set it to "Dot by Dot" the Aspect ratio becomes smaller, especially with 2.35.1 and 2.40.1 movies (I get about an inch more of black band on the top and bottom of the screen) However I don't know if my eyes are deceiving me or whether it's all psychological, but sometimes I think the PQ is equal to the PQ when set to "Stretch" mode. Then again I sometimes think the PQ looks better when set to "Dot by Dot". Based on the manual and the equipment I'm using, I should be using the "Dot by Dot" mode...right?

I've got the same TV. I think the Dot by Dot mode looks the best. I don't really mess with all of the other settings except the colors & brightness. Now it just stays on the Dot by Dot mode.
Doesn't hurt to give each mode a try when playing various sources and choose the best looking one.

[gand41f]

Dot by dot. Full pixel. +1.

Whatever it's called, always go for the one without overscan. My TV doesn't have a no ovenscan option for 720p broadcast HDTV, it greatly upsets me.

enjoy
gandalf

[gand41f]

Went to Best Buy/Magnolia to check out the reflection of Pioneer PRO-150FD. After salivating through the Pioneer demo disc, it went to a test pattern and to my surprise the display was running with overscan. Ugh.

I thought about pointing it out to the employees there but remembered last time I tried to explain something to them -- nobody was able to understand they were using the wrong stretch mode to show widescreen DVD on a Sony LCD. So I just left.

enjoy
gandalf

[Deciazulado]

A set could have overscan and dot by dot (1:1 pixels) at the same time, if it's made with a bezel (or projected area) designed to hide or crop a little of the image area to hide errors in bad sources (the reason overscan was "invented")

To check if it's doing 1:1 you have to use special resolution patterns (like 1 pixel checkerboards, or one pixel tall or wide horizontal or vertical alternating black and white resolution lines.)

If you know what to look for, you probably can check with the Sony 7669 resolution pattern.

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

A set could have overscan and dot by dot (1:1 pixels) at the same time, if it's made with a bezel (or projected area) designed to hide or crop a little of the image area to hide errors in bad sources (the reason overscan was "invented")

True. The local broadcast stations sometimes seem to insert a 1-pixel high noise at the top of the screen when they are upconverting SD to an HD channel. Quite annoying, but the picture quality is already so bad so I'm not nearly as annoyed as the picture quality itself.

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

To check if it's doing 1:1 you have to use special resolution patterns (like 1 pixel checkerboards, or one pixel tall or wide horizontal or vertical alternating black and white resolution lines.)

If you know what to look for, you probably can check with the Sony 7669 resolution pattern.

Yes. The Pioneer test pattern has a ruler on the right side, I could see that the edge of the display was at about the "5" so I think it had about 5% overscan in that mode.

By the way, what exactly do I need "to look for" on the Sony 7669 pattern? The triangles labeled "16:9" and "1.78" at the 4 corners seem to have a 1-pixel wide vertical bar attached to them and I can see them on both sides, so I think the width is fine. For the top, I see 2 white pixels right above the two triangles facing up (the ones just inside the "1:1" labels), but the corresponding triangles at the bottom don't have the white pixels below them. Does this mean I'm not seeing the whole screen at the bottom?

Also, looking at the black and white alternating lines, the vertical ones at the thinnest become a perfect 1-pixel wide bars (I see three perfect white bars, then it starts getting fuzzy) but the horizontal ones are a little fuzzy when they are the thinnest (they don't become perfect 1-pixel high bars). This also seems to indicate that the vertical direction is not exactly 1:1.

I'm not sure if the problem is caused by my PS3 or the XBR4 though.

enjoy
gandalf