Black Bars on All 4 Sides

[hendra]

This is not directly related to BD but I think it is worth questioning as it is related to DVD Movies that may never be released in BD.

I have seen some DVD that have black bars on all sides. Normally, when we have black bars, they are either at the top and bottom or left and right but never on all sides. But I have seen increasing number of DVD that have black bars on all 4 sides. The majority of DVD that have this problem is documentary. Six Days in June DVD, for example, has this problem. Why are they transferring DVD that have black bars on all 4 sides? I tried to solve the problem by using pan and scan or zooming with PowerDVD and WinDVD but they are not perfect since part of the movie is cut off.

[Argento Fan]

Never seen that before. Black bars on all four sides does not leave a lot or room for the actual picture.

[beefytwinkie]

I think the reason some movies have the black bars on all four sides is that they are filmed in "non-anamorphic widescreen". I have two DVD movies like that:

1. The Game (Michael Douglas movie)
2. Bulworth (Warren Beatty)

When I play them on my upconverting Sony, those two movies have the black bars on all four sides. The video stays kind of small right in the middle. Still watchable though.

[GGX]

The OP is playing a non-anamorphic DVD. Plain and simple.

Originally Posted by Blu-Goliath

Never seen that before. Black bars on all four sides does not leave a lot or room for the actual picture.

What are ya new to DVD's?

[MOONPHASE]

ive seen some trailers that are supposed to look like they are in widescreen picture but in fact it was a 4:3 image looking like a 16:9 image which equals out to bars on all 4 sides and not just 2. i think these companies should either decide that the image is going to be 4:3 or 16:9 not both

[Bravoxena]

The same thing happens when watching a widescreen movie on a standard definition TV channel.

The only thing you can do if you want it bigger is zoom.

[supersix4]

Opening scene of die hard we watched xmas night on encore lol the opening scene had the two black bars on the top then the black bars on the sides for 4:3 lmao worst picture ever.

[groove93]

Originally Posted by supersix4

Opening scene of die hard we watched xmas night on encore lol the opening scene had the two black bars on the top then the black bars on the sides for 4:3 lmao worst picture ever.

That's because there were credits during the intro. You'll find this alot nowadays with films being presented in their Origina Aspect Ratio, then the Station decides to switch to a full screen format once the opening credits are gone. It's a pain because you can see how crisp and clear the image looks, then you're stuck with this pixeled mess of a film.

The worse ones IMO are "A League of Their Own" and "A Few Good Men". Great Widesceen films, but "Panned and Scanned" to death because the Director took advantage of the Widescreen format and USED all of the area as a Canvas to paint their picture.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by GGX

The OP is playing a non-anamorphic DVD. Plain and simple.



What are ya new to DVD's?

It's this. It's a shame, as there are some DVD's that haven't been updated to be anamorphic yet. You can either stretch/zoom it (in which case it looks like hell) or see if you can update it for an anamorphic dvd/BD.

[lobosrul]

You're really just now coming across this? Black bars on all 4 sides means your getting a 4:3 standard def signal thats been letterboxed. I see it ALL the time on my HDTV on HD channels (that obviously arent HD all the time). I used to see it all the time on Conan O'brien before KOB-NBC finally got their act together. I've even seen it some on BD bonus feature content. It makes me want to puke.