Widescreen or full screen

[glane]

I am a newbie but thought you might be able to help me with this question. Recently, I purchased Up in the Air and Julie and Julia in blu-ray. I assumed that both movies were in widescreen, although I couldn't find anything on the case indicating one way or the other to me. For the same movie, does blu-ray come in both full screen and widescreen formats? With DVD's the cover always says whether or not it is widescreen, but how can you be sure with blu-ray. Whenever, I am purchasing a blu-ray movie at Amazon or Borders, there doesn't seem to be a choice--it's either full screen or widescreen but I don't see both being offered. By the way, both blu ray movies are advertized at Amazon as being widescreen with no full screen version, which I think may be a mistake. At Borders, the blu-ray version of Up in the Air is full screen and the DVD widescreen. And when I use the term widescreen, I mean viewing the movie with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Thanks for your help.

George

[The Lizard King]

Originally Posted by glane

I am a newbie but thought you might be able to help me with this question. Recently, I purchased Up in the Air and Julie and Julia in blu-ray. I assumed that both movies were in widescreen, although I couldn't find anything on the case indicating one way or the other to me. For the same movie, does blu-ray come in both full screen and widescreen formats? With DVD's the cover always says whether or not it is widescreen, but how can you be sure with blu-ray. Whenever, I am purchasing a blu-ray movie at Amazon or Borders, there doesn't seem to be a choice--it's either full screen or widescreen but I don't see both being offered. By the way, both blu ray movies are advertized at Amazon as being widescreen with no full screen version, which I think may be a mistake. At Borders, the blu-ray version of Up in the Air is full screen and the DVD widescreen. And when I use the term widescreen, I mean viewing the movie with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Thanks for your help.

Typically, no. At least, I've never seen a 4:3 panned & scanned BD. There's a lengthy discussion about how some BDs are transfered "open matte" from the OAR of 2.35:1 or 1.85:1 to 16:9 (1.78:1), but those don't bother me as much as the older 4:3 P&S transfers for DVD.

TLK

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by glane

I am a newbie but thought you might be able to help me with this question. Recently, I purchased Up in the Air and Julie and Julia in blu-ray. I assumed that both movies were in widescreen, although I couldn't find anything on the case indicating one way or the other to me.

Julie and Julia's Back Cover:



Says right under the specs that it is 1.85:1 which is a widescreen format. 1.33:1 and 1:37:1 are full-frame formats and any AR from 1.66 to 2.75 is a widescreen format.

Up In The Air's Back Cover:



Says right on the back under the Special Features: 1080p Widescreen. Paramount/Dreamworks never lists the AR for a film.

There are no Blu-ray Discs with film presentations modified to fit a 1.33:1 screen AKA Fullscreen. There may some imports that are modified from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1 widescreen but this is an uncommon practice with Canadian releases only. This does not occur with US releases unless the cinematographer or director chooses to alter it from the original aspect ratio.

As for widescreen meaning black bars on the top and bottom of a picture: black bars mean nothing and black bars should be ignored. It is the moving picture information that is important.

[The Lizard King]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Julie and Julia's Back Cover:



Says right under the specs that it is 1.85:1 which is a widescreen format. 1.33:1 and 1:37:1 are full-frame formats and any AR from 1.66 to 2.75 is a widescreen format.

Up In The Air's Back Cover:



Says right on the back under the Special Features: 1080p Widescreen. Paramount/Dreamworks never lists the AR for a film.

There are no Blu-ray Discs with film presentations modified to fit a 1.33:1 screen AKA Fullscreen. There may some imports that are modified from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1 widescreen but this is an uncommon practice with Canadian releases only. This does not occur with US releases unless the cinematographer or director chooses to alter it from the original aspect ratio.

As for widescreen meaning black bars on the top and bottom of a picture: black bars mean nothing and black bars should be ignored. It is the moving picture information that is important.

You can't get any more succinct than that! Thanks, steve_dave!

TLK

[glane]

Thanks everyone for your reply to my question. This is a great site, and I'm very appreciative of getting replies like this. I have basically a Pioneer home theatre set up with 6 Boston Accoutic speakers and am very much enjoying it. I have been following the technology since laser discs came out and even have a laser discs player and decent collection of laser discs, which still look pretty good when played.

George

[The Lizard King]

Originally Posted by glane

Thanks everyone for your reply to my question. This is a great site, and I'm very appreciative of getting replies like this. I have basically a Pioneer home theatre set up with 6 Boston Accoutic speakers and am very much enjoying it. I have been following the technology since laser discs came out and even have a laser discs player and decent collection of laser discs, which still look pretty good when played.

Just take a look at my sig! I love LD! I only go for LDs these days with content not on DVD nor BD, though (mostly Criterion commentary tracks).

TLK

[#Darren]

Just like to add that I believe 1.85:1 can NOW be called a full frame dimension. 1.33:1 was called full frame because at the time we all had 1.33:1 TV's and it filled the "full frame". Now that many of us have 1.85:1 TV's I believe that technically any movie in 1.85:1 is full frame (based on the original intended meaning of the term).

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Julie and Julia's Back Cover:



Says right under the specs that it is 1.85:1 which is a widescreen format. 1.33:1 and 1:37:1 are full-frame formats and any AR from 1.66 to 2.75 is a widescreen format.

Up In The Air's Back Cover:



Says right on the back under the Special Features: 1080p Widescreen. Paramount/Dreamworks never lists the AR for a film.

There are no Blu-ray Discs with film presentations modified to fit a 1.33:1 screen AKA Fullscreen. There may some imports that are modified from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1 widescreen but this is an uncommon practice with Canadian releases only. This does not occur with US releases unless the cinematographer or director chooses to alter it from the original aspect ratio.

As for widescreen meaning black bars on the top and bottom of a picture: black bars mean nothing and black bars should be ignored. It is the moving picture information that is important.

[sfmarine]

OP yes, there are some blu's that are available in full screen ex: (Wizard of oz and Casablanca) this is because that was the way things were filmed back then. In the 90's we started getting widescreen releases and people hated them because they didn't take up the whole screen. Now that HD tv's are widescreen, we can finally appreciate how the film was supposed to be seen and in High Def.

[Moviefan2k4]

Yeah, this debate's been going on since the beginning of film, or at least it seems that way. My sister says she doesn't care, but my mother is almost always disappointed with anything in widescreen. I've explained the situation to her several times, but she just doesn't like it. To her, if the image doesn't fill the TV she's not pleased.

[42041]

i wish people would stop using these ambiguous terms and use the numerical ratio....

there's not that many worth remembering:
1.33:1 = dvd "full screen"
1.78:1 = hdtv "full screen"
1.85:1 = theatrical flat (tiny black bars on your TV)
2.4:1 = theatrical anamorphic (big black bars)

[Atreyu]

Originally Posted by 42041

i wish people would stop using these ambiguous terms and use the numerical ratio....

there's not that many worth remembering:
1.33:1 = dvd "full screen"
1.78:1 = hdtv "full screen"
1.85:1 = theatrical flat (tiny black bars on your TV)
2.4:1 = theatrical anamorphic (big black bars)

What you said is for a standard, non HDTV but 1.85:1 fills up my screen where as 2.4:1 gives me thin black bars.
I think if you are really into movies you want to see them in their original aspect ratio.
It's just like my boyfriend, he still has a standard TV and hates black bars and if the movie is 2.35:1 he very rarely even watches it. And he also loves colorization! Am trying to get him to see the light.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

What you said is for a standard, non HDTV but 1.85:1 fills up my screen where as 2.4:1 gives me thin black bars.
I think if you are really into movies you want to see them in their original aspect ratio.
It's just like my boyfriend, he still has a standard TV and hates black bars and if the movie is 2.35:1 he very rarely even watches it. And he also loves colorization! Am trying to get him to see the light.

Your TV may have overscan, causing 1.85:1 to fill the screen. However, you should see small black bars for 1.85:1 provided there's no overscan or anything, since the 16:9 TV's are actually 1.78:1.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by iDarren

Just like to add that I believe 1.85:1 can NOW be called a full frame dimension. 1.33:1 was called full frame because at the time we all had 1.33:1 TV's and it filled the "full frame". Now that many of us have 1.85:1 TV's I believe that technically any movie in 1.85:1 is full frame (based on the original intended meaning of the term).

I think you mean we have 1.78 TV's. And it appears Sony is actually calling 1.78 "fullscreen" now. If you look at their current Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD, you'll see the original 2.35:1 Theatrical Widescreen version and then the 1.78 "full screen" version.

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

What you said is for a standard, non HDTV but 1.85:1 fills up my screen where as 2.4:1 gives me thin black bars.
I think if you are really into movies you want to see them in their original aspect ratio.
It's just like my boyfriend, he still has a standard TV and hates black bars and if the movie is 2.35:1 he very rarely even watches it. And he also loves colorization! Am trying to get him to see the light.

Then yopu have some overscan one,it should have little black bars.

[Lincoln6Echo]

Oiye...not this discussion again.

The whole purpose of going to BD is that we get 1080p resolution which is the max resolution allowed by your 16:9 HDTVs. The native resolution of a 1080p TV is 1920x1080. Now how each movie is formatted within those pixels is the question.

With 480i DVD, the issue was a bit more straight forward. BECAUSE 480i is the native resolution of, yep, you guessed it, 4:3 SDTVs at 640x480.

So you see, BD was made and was made only for 16:9 HDTVs (or projectors). The only time you're going to get a 4:3 BD is if the source was filmed that way.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

What you said is for a standard, non HDTV but 1.85:1 fills up my screen where as 2.4:1 gives me thin black bars.
I think if you are really into movies you want to see them in their original aspect ratio.
It's just like my boyfriend, he still has a standard TV and hates black bars and if the movie is 2.35:1 he very rarely even watches it. And he also loves colorization! Am trying to get him to see the light.

1.85:1 has very thin black bars on 1.78:1 displays however...

Overscan on many displays will trim off sides forcing 1.85:1 framed images to appear as if they are filling the screen.

Wait, it gets more murky...

Warner, Paramount, and Weinstein will open up the mattes for 1.85:1 framed films slightly to 1.78:1 because the belief is that overscan on a display will correct the AR to 1.85:1.

So you have these common ARs:

1.37:1 Original Academy Aspect
1.33:1 Revised Academy Aspect/Full Frame
1.44:1 IMAX Aspect Ratio
1.78:1 HDTV Aspect/Widescreen Aspect
1.85:1 Academy Flat Aspect
2.35:1/2.39:1/2.40:1 Academy Scope Aspect

And these uncommon ARs:

1.66:1 Common European Widescreen Aspect
2.00:1 Univisum Aspect
2.20:1
2.55:1

It is common to find films in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio modified to 1.85:1 for compatibility with US projectors.

[Lincoln6Echo]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

What you said is for a standard, non HDTV but 1.85:1 fills up my screen where as 2.4:1 gives me thin black bars.
I think if you are really into movies you want to see them in their original aspect ratio.
It's just like my boyfriend, he still has a standard TV and hates black bars and if the movie is 2.35:1 he very rarely even watches it. And he also loves colorization! Am trying to get him to see the light.

Umm, no...like the other said, you either have overscan on or you have zoomed your BD player to 1.2x. A 16:9 TV is 1.78:1, not 1.85:1.

With 1.85 movies, you will have a very thin, almost unnoticeable black bar. With 2.35:1, 2.39:1 or 2.40:1 movies you will have a thick black bar.

But yeah, the only way you'd be seeing any different is if you have overscan on or have zoomed your player to 1.2x.

Oh, as for your boyfriend...dump him if he's that stubborn. But for his tolerance for colorization, I can't really argue with him on that. I preferred the coloized version of The Longest Day when it came out on VHS in a 50th Anniversary version back in 1994.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by Lincoln6Echo

Oiye...not this discussion again.

The whole purpose of going to BD is that we get 1080p resolution which is the max resolution allowed by your 16:9 HDTVs. The native resolution of a 1080p TV is 1920x1080. Now how each movie is formatted within those pixels is the question.

With 480i DVD, the issue was a bit more straight forward. BECAUSE 480i is the native resolution of, yep, you guessed it, 4:3 SDTVs at 640x480.

So you see, BD was made and was made only for 16:9 HDTVs (or projectors). The only time you're going to get a 4:3 BD is if the source was filmed that way.

He's a junior member asking a simple question about Blu-rays being in widescreen... not that big of a deal.

[Alpha]

Originally Posted by iDarren

Just like to add that I believe 1.85:1 can NOW be called a full frame dimension. 1.33:1 was called full frame because at the time we all had 1.33:1 TV's and it filled the "full frame". Now that many of us have 1.85:1 TV's I believe that technically any movie in 1.85:1 is full frame (based on the original intended meaning of the term).

Definitely. In fact, I've been hoping they'd start adding this somewhere on the case, as they eventually did with DVD's. Of course, personally, it doesn't really matter if it fills the screen or not, so long as the movie is good. And with the exception of a few, I don't see companies releasing different versions of the same movie.