picture size

[Toni]

Our family is putting together a media room or MAn cave for my husband. We got a panasonic bllue ray home theater and a 52" flat screen. We were watching the Dark Knight and Eagle Eye and were disappointed because of a black line across the top and bottom of the picture. My husband has tried everything he could think of, called panasonic support and talked to a person at Best Buy to figure out the problem. No solutions but lots of conflicting answers. Is this normal?
Toni

[gearyt]

yes. it is normal
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=38161

and Welcome !!

[Beta Man]

As Gearyt said, it is in fact normal, and to give the "watered down" explanation of the link he provided, since movies are filmed in so many different aspect ratios, no television is a "one size fits all" so it's better to have black bars, and see the whole picture, than to have a screen that has the image from edge to edge, but it cuts off some of the image.... like the tops of people's heads etc.

Welcome, and enjoy the "Man Cave"

And to repeat the all-too-cliche' quote... Have your husband join up the forum also, and "see how far the rabbit hole goes" You'll be a blu-ray junkie before you know it

[DavidAg02]

He can always adjust the aspect ratio of his TV until it fills up the whole screen. It will cut some off of the sides though.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

He can always adjust the aspect ratio of his TV until it fills up the whole screen. It will cut some off of the sides though.

And cut off A LOT of the picture during the Imax scenes.

[liquidice]

like already stated, perfectly normal. You will stumble across movies that fill the screen corner to corner, but most movies still come with the aspect ratio that give the black bars top and bottom. NOT already stated is that you want to make sure your set has gone through some kind of break-in, meaning you have set it to full screen through some kind of time length to ensure the least amount of image retention is obtained. You want all the pixels to get a signal to ensure an even amount of usage out of them. There are piles of threads about this, search it out under general home theater discussion, or display theory discussion.

[brett_day]

black bars are your friend and you will come to love them! the picture you see when watching a movie with black bars, is the actual picture the director intended the audience to see! If you zoom in you may miss some key information from a scene etc, not to mention parts of heads will be cut off from zooming in.

It might take a while to get used to it but give it a try! when you finally get settled and you are watching the movie, you will not even notice that they are there

[brett_day]

Originally Posted by liquidice

NOT already stated is that you want to make sure your set has gone through some kind of break-in, .

only applicable to plasma's and even then it is not a must do procedure. even though i recommend it on plasma's! break in's are not required for LCD or DLP as they do not use phosphors which require the even burn that plasma's do.

[jc480]

Welcome to Blu-Ray.com and the home theater forum.

[spolcyc]

Here we go again

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

He can always adjust the aspect ratio of his TV until it fills up the whole screen. It will cut some off of the sides though.

And seriously degrade the resolution!

[DavidAg02]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

And seriously degrade the resolution!

I didn't say it would be my first choice... I just know some people that are seriously bothered by widescreen aspect ratios.

My father is one of them. He feels like he wasted his money if it doesn't take up the whole screen. I guess you really can't teach an old dog new tricks!

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by DavidAg02

I didn't say it would be my first choice... I just know some people that are seriously bothered by widescreen aspect ratios.

My father is one of them. He feels like he wasted his money if it doesn't take up the whole screen. I guess you really can't teach an old dog new tricks!

My friend is the same as your dad and not as old, it's also very hard to teach a young pup a new trick also

[DavidAg02]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

My friend is the same as your dad and not as old, it's also very hard to teach a young pup a new trick also

I have to admit that the full screen IMAX shots on TDK were pretty glorious. I definitely had a few moments where I wished all movies were filmed like that!

[Samsang]

In addition to the thread linked above, this one will really help you visualize why those black bars show up and why they are your friends.

CLICK HERE