Windowboxed 4:3 BLu-rays

[filmmusic]

Hello.
I was wondering about something.
Whenever I watch a BLuray that has a 4:3 aspect ratio, i see the image windowboxed.
Something like this (not my photo):


Eg. the Star TRek TOS Blurays are like this.
Is it indeed like this, or I am doing something wrong in my preferences?
(i watch my blurays on pc with various software (MPC, PowerDVD, WinDVD))

I mean why are those bars on top and bottom? Does everyone see them?
(I am not referring to the bars on the sides in this post)

[chip75]

They're player generated (or software) and not part of the BD image. I'm not familiar with the software but you'll have to alter the Crop, Aspect Ratio or Zoom settings to cut the letterboxing out. Are they there when you watch a 1.78:1 movie too? If they are it's one of those settings. I'd try switching all three to default. It's quite easy to do on VLC player.

[ewsjr]

Windowboxing occurs when an image appears centered in a television screen, with blank space on all four sides of the image such as when a widescreen image that has been previously letterboxed to fit 1.33:1 is then pillarboxed to fit 16:9. It is also called "matchbox", "gutterbox", and "postage stamp" display. This occurs on the DVD editions of the Star Trek films on a 4:3 television when the included widescreen documentaries show footage from the original television series. It is common to see windowboxed commercials on HD television networks, because many commercials are shot in 16:9 but distributed to networks in SD, letterboxed to fit 1.33:1. The other thing to check since you didn't mention you're display settings is to be sure your have the display set to HD2 in the aspect adjustments (this gives you 1:1 pixel mapping so you see everything on your screen with no overscan which you get using HD1 which blows the picture up slightly) and be sure your using FULL format and not a stretched format like just or zoom.

[chip75]

I downloaded MPC and played the TNG trailer for season 5.

View > Video Frame > Override Aspect Ratio > Default

I then changed the video to half size:

View > Video Frame > Half Size

That way you should be able to see the entire video frame, I then selected:

View > Video Frame > Touch Video From Outside

I played a few videos with different aspect ratios and they displayed fine. Star Trek was in 4:3, The Simpsons in 16:9 and 300 Rise of an Empire was letterboxed to 2.39:1. Try and put everything back to Default first and try my guide to see if it helps. I'm assuming you have a 16:9 monitor for your PC.

[Tech-UK]

All Blu-ray's are 16:9 (HD content anyway), with the black bars encoded within the image. Star Trek should not be windowboxed. It should be pillarboxed, 1.33:1.

What Chip has discussed is what is probably happening. Its a settings issue within the software and/or display.

filmmusic, if you could tell us what your display is and what settings you are using in both the software and display.

Its always harder to setup and resolve issues relating to Blu-ray playback on a PC, with the amount of settings and hardware configurations possible.

P.S see Chips post above. ^^

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Tech-UK

Its always harder to setup and resolve issues relating to Blu-ray playback on a PC, with the amount of settings and hardware configurations possible.

I found some of the settings with MPC a bit baffling (compared to VLC player) and not all the tabs have Default or Reset options. They're not something that need a lot of fiddling around with unless you want to crop widescreen DVDs (like some people do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer), or remove the letterboxing on non-anamorphic DVDs or BD special features.

I just tried playing Futurama on DVD and I had to fiddle with the settings, changing Touch Window From Outside to Touch Window From Inside.

MPC is unusual though, as when you go to fullscreen it doesn't always work unless you have the settings right!

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by Tech-UK

All Blu-ray's are 16:9 (HD content anyway), with the black bars encoded within the image. Star Trek should not be windowboxed. It should be pillarboxed, 1.33:1.

What Chip has discussed is what is probably happening. Its a settings issue within the software and/or display.

filmmusic, if you could tell us what your display is and what settings you are using in both the software and display.

Its always harder to setup and resolve issues relating to Blu-ray playback on a PC, with the amount of settings and hardware configurations possible.

P.S see Chips post above. ^^

yes, i know the trick with MPC and "touch video from outside", but I think I shouldn't have to do that. (by the way, i can't watch Star Trek episodes with MPC because MPC doesn't support menu playback, and so i can't select episodes. I can only use it for films)
Well, all my players are in default preferences..
powerDVD is in "always maintain video aspect ratio".
WinDVD is also in "fixed aspect ratio"..

I have a widescreen 24'' monitor, with 1920X1200 resolution.

By the way, i just read that PowerDVD can't crop the windowboxing!
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/pos...92.page#131583

the image i see in my pc is the 2nd one from the attachments in that page!
You mean this isn't the default image of the Bluray? I thought maybe its content was 16:9, that's why it shows that way the 4:3 image.
Because if you use a feature to crop the bars on top and bottom, then when you go to the menu, it will have cropped the sides although it didn't have black bars there! So the image of the menu won't be right (although you will be able to see the episodes in full screen)

I mean this:
If i crop the image to fit my screen, then I'll see the image in the red outline.
BUT, the menu fits the green outline, so if i crop, it will be cropped on the sides (on the red outline).
That means that the image is right as it is (without cropping) thus displaying a windowboxed image for the episodes.

http://imgur.com/IKgCbQ2

[chip75]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

You mean this isn't the default image of the Bluray? I thought maybe its content was 16:9, that's why it shows that way the 4:3 image.

All BDs are in the 16:9 format. The TNG menus are in 16:9 and the episodes 4:3 but the pillar-boxing is part of the video-information. There shouldn't be any letterboxing at all, if it is it's player generated.

The problem you've got is your monitor isn't 1920x1080 it's 1920x1200. It's 1.6:1 instead of 1.78:1. The letterboxing is caused by the extra 60 pixels at the top and bottom of the frame, generated by the player. There's no way to get the smaller image to fit exactly unless you crop or zoom in the picture, so you'll end up losing information down the sides.

So unless you want to fiddle about it's something you'll have to live with (or buy a different monitor). The player will always try to make the 16:9 image fit the space by generating the extra bars at the top and bottom.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by chip75

All BDs are in the 16:9 format. The TNG menus are in 16:9 and the episodes 4:3 but the pillar-boxing is part of the video-information. There shouldn't be any letterboxing at all, if it is it's player generated.

The problem you've got is your monitor isn't 1920x1080 it's 1920x1200. It's 1.6:1 instead of 1.78:1. The letterboxing is caused by the extra 60 pixels at the top and bottom of the frame, generated by the player. There's no way to get the smaller image to fit exactly unless you crop or zoom in the picture, so you'll end up losing information down the sides.

So unless you want to fiddle about it's something you'll have to live with (or buy a different monitor). The player will always try to make the 16:9 image fit the space by generating the extra bars at the top and bottom.

Oh, I understand now!
Thanks!

[chip75]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Oh, I understand now!
Thanks!

You're welcome.