black bars on all blu ray films?

[blujacket]

You would think a member who's user name is Blu would know about aspect ratios.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by kevinbr100

hmm new theory, although the guy that started this thread may have been legit. this question seems to pop up and get argued about by the questioner, haha it makes me think that the trolls from newsgroups of yesteryear have evolved now into i hate black bars posters, instigators to bait people just for their own personal amusement.

[VinnAY]

There are a great many folks out there that are either ignorant to aspect ratios, or they are under the impression that like a standard DVD, there are versions of each film...full screen and widescreen. A friend of mine that I consider to be very tech saavy ran into the latter the other day...said something like "I should have bought the full screen bluray"...I just LOL'd

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by blu boy1

Am I doing something wrong, my panny tv and panny blu ray player always plays all blu ray films with black bars top and bottom. It is set to auto. Do I have to watch the films like this? I can use zoom but that distorts the films..is this the only option?

Exercise your right as a consumer and stop buying movies that aren't in 1.78 or 1.85 aspect ratio. Maybe if enough people do this directors will get the hint and stop filming in unnecessarily wide aspect ratios!

[tau31]

Learn to love them

[SDon1969]

Kudos to all the posters here with friendly replies, I was almost afraid to read this thread!

Don't worry OP, your settings are good to go and some day you will no longer even notice those black bars.

[blujacket]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Exercise your right as a consumer and stop buying movies that aren't in 1.78 or 1.85 aspect ratio. Maybe if enough people do this directors will get the hint and stop filming in unnecessarily wide aspect ratios!

[rragland]

Originally Posted by blu boy1

Am I doing something wrong, my panny tv and panny blu ray player always plays all blu ray films with black bars top and bottom. It is set to auto. Do I have to watch the films like this? I can use zoom but that distorts the films..is this the only option?

You could get on of these:

http://www.cepro.com/slideshow/image/3998/

[witheygull]

Originally Posted by hourglass

Sometimes, (Kubrick springs to mind here...) the full-frame is the intended aspect ratio.

Kubrick, on the other hand, made sure the full 35mm frame was clear so that the film would fill up the whole 4:3 screen. Rather than losing information like with Pan & Scan, you get MORE information top & bottom.

The snag here is that these movies then don't take advantage of a widescreen HD monitor, thus the Kubrick movies that have been released to date on Blu-ray have been the matted theatrical versions.

More information is not always a good thing, especially when it negatively impacts the composition. Look at the 4:3 DVD for Eyes Wide Shut and compare it to the 16:9 blu-ray. The 16:9 image is indeed cropped on the top and bottom compared to the 4:3 image, but the result is a more aesthetically pleasing composition. The 4:3 image frames the characters with more space above and/or below them than is necessary. This diminishes the power of close-up shots because the actor's face does not occupy as much of the image as in the 16:9 version.

I love Kubrick's movies and I'm usually on the side of the director when it comes to preferred aspect ratio, but I think Kubrick was wrong in his preference for altering the aspect ratio of the theatrical presentation for home video release.

[NovaBomb]

Originally Posted by kevinbr100

hmm new theory, although the guy that started this thread may have been legit. this question seems to pop up and get argued about by the questioner, haha it makes me think that the trolls from newsgroups of yesteryear have evolved now into i hate black bars posters, instigators to bait people just for their own personal amusement.

What I find very amussing is the fact that wide aspect ratios isn't new to blu-ray, you have to kind of wonder if they are new to movies in general, becuase if they were in to DVDs they would already know about it.

[Midnightsailor]

Originally Posted by NovaBomb

What I find very amussing is the fact that wide aspect ratios isn't new to blu-ray, you have to kind of wonder if they are new to movies in general, becuase if they were in to DVDs they would already know about it.

Yeah... I often wonder about this.

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by NovaBomb

What I find very amussing is the fact that wide aspect ratios isn't new to blu-ray, you have to kind of wonder if they are new to movies in general, becuase if they were in to DVDs they would already know about it.

I think it's because they have a Hi-Def TV where all Hi-Def content fills their widescreen TV. So the assumption is that a Hi-Def movie would be the same.

And frankly if everyone would just #^%#!@ standardize on one aspect ratio with the TV manufacturers following suit the world would be a much happier place.

[danbrch]

[Lucy Diamond]

Originally Posted by Pirate King

I would watch Casablanca if the picture was in the shape of a circle !! Well, maybe not. I do, however, find it somewhat amusing that there must be lots of people watching their full screen dvd's on their new HDTV and trying to figure out why the picture is only in the center of the screen! LOL

It is funny you mention a circular screen. There was a little failure of a tv, I think back in the 50's that had a 9 or 10 inch circular screen.

I was doing a tech piece for a company a few years back and I had to grab all these weird old pics off the net and one was a family watching an old cabinet tv with a round screen!!!!

[MrParrott]

I remember learning about OAR back on Siskel and Eberts' show "At the Movies"
from that time on I would only rent movies that were letterboxed
even if I was going to watch them on my 13 inch television

[hourglass]

Originally Posted by witheygull

More information is not always a good thing, especially when it negatively impacts the composition. Look at the 4:3 DVD for Eyes Wide Shut and compare it to the 16:9 blu-ray. The 16:9 image is indeed cropped on the top and bottom compared to the 4:3 image, but the result is a more aesthetically pleasing composition. The 4:3 image frames the characters with more space above and/or below them than is necessary. This diminishes the power of close-up shots because the actor's face does not occupy as much of the image as in the 16:9 version.

I'm with you about 80% there... the rest of me likes seeing as much Nicole Kidman as humanly possible.

hg

[brett_day]

black bars are your friend!

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[glenn-bob]

if your picture extends horizontally to the outside of your TV frame and the picture doesn't look squished then you have it set right. if they are squished vertically then there is something wrong.

[kdn1221]

Rule of thumb:

This is generally true if you didn't make any adjustment to the video display mode on your TV.

On an older picture tube and 4X3 TVs -
Black bars on any program with OAR other than 4X3

On 16X9 TVs -
Horizontal black bars on any program with OAR other than 1.78:1, 1.85:1, or something close to that.

Vertical black bars on any program with OAR of 4:3

No black bars on any 1.78:1, 1.85:1, or similar OAR unless it's broadcasted with lower resolution. The picture may be inside a black border like a picture frame.



The best way to watch the movies is with all room lights off. This is similar to the condition in a theater and your attention will be mainly on the show and not much else.