Star Trek (Both Original And Next Generation)

[Spottedfeather]

I'm reading that the Star Trek TOS blu-rays are pillarboxed when viewed on a widescreen tv. I don't have a widescreen tv. How will the show look on my tv ? Will it look like those non anamorphic dvds from years ago, the image being a tiny box in the middle of the screen ?

What about Next Generation ?

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Spottedfeather

I'm reading that the Star Trek TOS blu-rays are pillarboxed when viewed on a widescreen tv. I don't have a widescreen tv. How will the show look on my tv ? Will it look like those non anamorphic dvds from years ago, the image being a tiny box in the middle of the screen ?

What about Next Generation ?

No, it will look just like any other 1.33:1 presentation on a 1.78:1 screen.

[Spottedfeather]

That's not what I asked. I asked what the original series blu-rays will look like on a 4:3 tv. Will they be like non anamorphic dvds with the picture in a box in the middle of the screen ? Sort of like the first dvds of the Home Alone movies or the original versions of Star Wars.

[dknight38]

Hey man, not to be rude, but HD Goofnut answered exactly the question you were asking.

The TOS DVDs were never "non-anamorphic" because they were not shot in a widescreen format. When you watched them and they had bars on the side it was because the discs were maintaining the original aspect ratio that they were shot and broadcast at. The blu rays of TOS will look the same because 4:3 was the original aspect ratio. They were shot on film, but framed for TV because TVs were 4:3 in the 60s. Having the bars on the side is exactly how they should look.

You're absolutely right that Home Alone and (unfortunately) the unaltered Star Wars flicks are non-anamorphic when they have the bars on the side, but that's because they were intended to be a widescreen aspected ratio and should fill out the screen.

Hope that helps.

[Maxwell Everett]

If you tell your Blu-ray player you have a 4:3 TV, it will show 16:9 content (i.e. Blu-ray) letterboxed with black bars on the top and bottom. Because both of these series have hard coded black pillar bars on the sides of the frame, yes, the show will be framed by black all around. You'd have to tell your Blu-ray player that you have a 16:9 TV and the image will appear stretched vertically. If you have access to a horizontal stretch control, you could then pull the image out to fill the screen.

Widescreen HDTV's are cheap and ubiquitous nowadays... it wouldn't hurt to buy one after you've saved up some money.

[Spottedfeather]

Originally Posted by Maxwell Everett

If you tell your Blu-ray player you have a 4:3 TV, it will show 16:9 content (i.e. Blu-ray) letterboxed with black bars on the top and bottom. Because both of these series have hard coded black pillar bars on the sides of the frame, yes, the show will be framed by black all around. You'd have to tell your Blu-ray player that you have a 16:9 TV and the image will appear stretched vertically. If you have access to a horizontal stretch control, you could then pull the image out to fill the screen.

Widescreen HDTV's are cheap and ubiquitous nowadays... it wouldn't hurt to buy one after you've saved up some money.

I've heard that if you watched the Star Trek original series on a 4:3 tv, it would be in widescreen with black all the way around the picture. The Pinocchio blu-ray is like that. I've also heard that the Next Generation blu-rays will fill a 4:3 tv. That's what I was wondering about because I wasn't sure if it was true or not.

And to everyone telling me not to even bother with blu-ray unless I have a widescreen tv....shut it. Not everyone has the money for a widescreen tv. A lot of us have to make do with the 4:3 tvs we have until they break. I got a blu-ray player because my dvd player wasn't working that well, and I thought why not upgrade for when I can get a widescreen tv. Not having a job makes it difficult to "save up some money."

And before a bunch of swingbags rag on me for that, you should know that I CAN'T get a job. My mother is ill and I'm the only one around to help her out. My dad works and both of my brothers moved out.

[benricci]

Originally Posted by dknight38

Hey man, not to be rude, but HD Goofnut answered exactly the question you were asking.

Hey man, not to be rude, but HD Goofnut didn't answer the OP's question correctly. And neither did you.

[HD Goofnut]

I should have clarified. That's how it will look on any 1.78:1 display. If you're using an older 4.3 tube TV then it will simply fill up the screen.

[Spottedfeather]

Originally Posted by dknight38

Hey man, not to be rude, but HD Goofnut answered exactly the question you were asking.

The TOS DVDs were never "non-anamorphic" because they were not shot in a widescreen format. When you watched them and they had bars on the side it was because the discs were maintaining the original aspect ratio that they were shot and broadcast at. The blu rays of TOS will look the same because 4:3 was the original aspect ratio. They were shot on film, but framed for TV because TVs were 4:3 in the 60s. Having the bars on the side is exactly how they should look.

You're absolutely right that Home Alone and (unfortunately) the unaltered Star Wars flicks are non-anamorphic when they have the bars on the side, but that's because they were intended to be a widescreen aspected ratio and should fill out the screen.

Hope that helps.

Never had the TOS dvds. Are the TOS and Next Generation blu-rays encoded so that the picture would have black all around the picture when viewed on a 4:3 tv, like the Pinocchio blu-ray ?

[benricci]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

No, it will look just like any other 1.33:1 presentation on a 1.78:1 screen.

Except he doesn't have a 1.78 screen. To the OP, since you don't own an HDTV, just stick with the DVDs, which will be proper full screen on your 4:3 set.

If you somehow manage to hook up a bluray player to your 4:3 set, and Lord knows why you'd bother, you'll likely get a pillarboxed image inside a down-sampled 16:9 widescreen image - meaning bars on top AND sides. Never hooked up a hi-def device to a non-HD TV, personally.

Again, for you, just stick with the DVD sets.

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

The answer to the OP's question is not that obvious. There are many factors to consider.

The OP says that he has a 4:3 TV.

1) Is the TV an SDTV or HDTV? Yes, there were HDTVs with 4:3 dimensions.

2) Does the OP have a Blu-ray player that allows him to change how a video signal is sent to the TV? Some BD players let you choose between widescreen (i.e. the player is hooked up to a 16:9 TV) or "letterboxed" (i.e. the player is hooked up to a 4:3 TV).

3) Depending on what option the OP picks in Part 2 and depending on whether or not the video signal is flagged for playback in a 4:3 TV, a Blu-ray of a movie/TV show in 1.33:1 may fill up the screen or may have black bars all around.

For a long while, my parents had a Blu-ray player hooked up to their old 4:3 SDTV. We were able to watch 1.33:1 programs, such as Casablanca, w/o black borders. You just have to get the right settings for your set-up.

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

My BD player (a Magnavox) has the following video output options:

4:3 Pan and Scan

4:3 Letterbox

16:9 Wide

16:9 Squeeze

I set it to 16:9 Squeeze when I have it connected to a 16:9 TV that doesn't stretch or squish any content (meaning, everything is shown in the proper aspect ratio).

When I play Star Trek TOS Season 1 in either 4:3 Pan and Scan or 4:3 Letterbox, I get black bars on all sides of the picture. I think TOS was hard formatted this way b/c of the Bonus Features. The secondary video stream will take up the entire 1.78:1 dimension of a 16:9 when showing comparison shots. The sides would be cut off on a 4:3 TV if they didn't "protect" for this.

This is different for movies like Casablanca and Gone With the Wind, where Warner didn't do anything fancy with the Java software.

[Spottedfeather]

Originally Posted by blu-ray_girl_fan

The answer to the OP's question is not that obvious. There are many factors to consider.

The OP says that he has a 4:3 TV.

1) Is the TV an SDTV or HDTV? Yes, there were HDTVs with 4:3 dimensions.

2) Does the OP have a Blu-ray player that allows him to change how a video signal is sent to the TV? Some BD players let you choose between widescreen (i.e. the player is hooked up to a 16:9 TV) or "letterboxed" (i.e. the player is hooked up to a 4:3 TV).

3) Depending on what option the OP picks in Part 2 and depending on whether or not the video signal is flagged for playback in a 4:3 TV, a Blu-ray of a movie/TV show in 1.33:1 may fill up the screen or may have black bars all around.

For a long while, my parents had a Blu-ray player hooked up to their old 4:3 SDTV. We were able to watch 1.33:1 programs, such as Casablanca, w/o black borders. You just have to get the right settings for your set-up.

1. it's an SD tv.
2. my blu-ray player can choose either 4:3 letterbox, 16:9 Wide, 4:3 pan and scan, or 16:9 squeeze.
3. using the blu-ray of Rocketeer, I set the player for 4:3 pan and scan, and it didn't change anything that I could see. 16:9 Squeeze just slightly stretched the picture on top and bottom. 16:9 Wide did the same thing.

I guess if I ever got the blu-rays, I'd have to watch them on my laptop. I could watch them on the main tv in the front room, but my mom hates Star Trek, so....

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

Originally Posted by Spottedfeather

1. it's an SD tv.
2. my blu-ray player can choose either 4:3 letterbox, 16:9 Wide, 4:3 pan and scan, or 16:9 squeeze.
3. using the blu-ray of Rocketeer, I set the player for 4:3 pan and scan, and it didn't change anything that I could see. 16:9 Squeeze just slightly stretched the picture on top and bottom. 16:9 Wide did the same thing.

I guess if I ever got the blu-rays, I'd have to watch them on my laptop. I could watch them on the main tv in the front room, but my mom hates Star Trek, so....

Choose 4:3 letterbox or 4:3 Pan and Scan. Try Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Do you have any other movies, such as Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or The Wizard of Oz, in 1.33:1?

[Spottedfeather]

Originally Posted by blu-ray_girl_fan

Choose 4:3 letterbox or 4:3 Pan and Scan. Try Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Do you have any other movies, such as Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or The Wizard of Oz, in 1.33:1?

Not on blu-ray. I've watched Wizard on dvd and it filled the screen. Don't have the others you mentioned. I DO have a tv movie on blu-ray, A Christmas Visitor. That movie fills the 4:3 tv. I don't see why Star Trek is hard formatted to a 16:9 shape when it doesn't need to be. It would work just as well on an HDtv as it would on a 4:3 tv...

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

Originally Posted by Spottedfeather

Not on blu-ray. I've watched Wizard on dvd and it filled the screen. Don't have the others you mentioned. I DO have a tv movie on blu-ray, A Christmas Visitor. That movie fills the 4:3 tv. I don't see why Star Trek is hard formatted to a 16:9 shape when it doesn't need to be. It would work just as well on an HDtv as it would on a 4:3 tv...

A Christmas Visitor should have black bars at the top and bottom, so you should probably go with 4:3 letterbox instead of 4:3 Pan and Scan.

You should not be using either of the 16:9 options until you get a 16:9 HDTV.