Okay i have a Hitachi 57UWX20B Widescreen HDTV. The DVDs i purchase to watch on this TV are always widescreen. However some of the time even though i buy the widescreen DVD(like Lord of the Rings/Minority report). I still have those black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. But when i watch other DVDs(like Band of Brothers), it's completely fills the screen. This week i just bought the Futurama in full screen(it only comes this way) but this fills the screen perfectly w/o any stretching. Someone please clarify this. Does this have to do with the 2.35:1/1.85:1/1.33:1 ratios? Any info would be appreciated.

Ok, let's try to clarify: widescreen TV is actually 16:9, which nothing will completely fill screen without stretching or cropping except for one thing only, High Definition broadcast. You're correct in the fact that because of movie industry's standard (or lack of), none of the movie in widescreen (as filmed) will totally fill a 16:9 TV. The reason a 'fullscreen' format will fill the TV is similar to VCR's 4:3, some of the sides and/or top/bottom are cropped off, so when you display it on a so-called widescreen TV (actually 16:9), it fills the screen when you put the picture presentation in "cinema wide" or "full cinema" mode. Isn't all these confusing?

So if the black bars really annoy the hell out of me i should probably get the full screen editions if they're available?

Only if the black bars annoy you more than having large parts of the picture chopped off the edges! Personally, I want to see the whole picture even if it means putting up with the black bars.

Doesn't the TV have settings that allow increasing the image size enough to fill the screen, while keeping proportions, even if it means losing some of the sides of the image? It seems that there would be less overall image loss than a fullscreen version would provide.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Your Futurama is stretching, you must just be more annoyed by black bars than by the stretching so you don't notice it.

Here's some more info...

Widescreen TV: 1.78:1 ratio
Fullscreen TV: 1.33:1
"Blockbuster" movies: 2.35:1
"Standard" movies: 1.85:1

Fact: All TVs (excepting some tweaked TVs and some projectors) have overscan. Which means that you have NEVER watched ALL of any show. You're missing between 5-10% on all 4 sides typically, even on a TV of the correct shape for the show you are watching. Why does this matter?

Overscan is why many movies appear to fill a widescreen TV, the overscan cuts the small black bars you should be seeing (the difference between 1.85 and 1.78 ratios) off the screen. The sad thing about this is that this has been going on so long that shows actually assume there is overscan and film/tape accordingly. That's why the bars on news channels seems to match up with the bottom/top of the screen, they are compensating for overscan. Get a cheap TV with massive overscan and you start to lose some of this bar. ESPN2 is a good way to see how bad your TV is on this, on my crappiest TV I can barely see half the words in their bar, on my others I can see all of the words.

This has been an annoying issue for a lot of new projector owners. It seems that certain HD tuners for the 2 sat companies actually kill the overscan issue themselves so people can see the whole picture. So these folks switch to a pj with no overscan and suddenly there is a 1-2" bar on all 4 sides for HDTV broadcasts. I guess they should just create their own overscan by zooming their lens for HDTV viewing.

Leedave,

You got some bad information in the beginning of this thread and I'd like to make sure that we clear that up.

First, you said you have a widescreen TV, also called a 16:9 TV, so you should ALWAYS buy the "widescreen" version of a movie if there's a choice between "widescreen" and "full screen" versions. The full screen version is only (marginally) useful for people with old-style (4:3) TVs.

Second, programming comes in all different shapes. Most TV programs are in 4:3 so they fit a standard TV just fine. HDTV programs are, by definition, 16:9 they will fit the newer widescreen TVs. A few shows are being broadcast on standard TV in a letterbox 16:9 format already including Enterprise (UPN) and ER (NBC).

Third, movies come in a variety of shapes with 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 being the most common. The actual dimmension used is choice made by the director and is based on the type of subject matter and shots he intends to use. Generally speaking, Sci-fi and action movies will be more likely to be 2.35:1 and dramas, comedies, etc. are more likely to be 1.85:1.

Your 16:9 TV is 1.77:1 which is close to the 1.85:1 that is used in a lot of movies. Once overscan is factored in a 1:85:1 movie will fill the screen on a 16:9 set. A 2.35:1 movie will not fill your screen vertically so you'll have small black bars at the top and bottom. This is completely normal and desireable.

When you watch 4:3 material on your widescreen TV, whether from DVD, cable, satelite or antenna, you will generally want to stretch it horizontally to fill your wider screen. You Hitachi likely has a couple of options that you can use although I'm not familair with the names Hitachi uses.

Widescreen material can come in two forms with each form requiring a different stretch mode. With regard to DVDs, the two forms are anamorphic and non-anamorphic transfers. If you have a non-anamorphic transfer (becoming much less common these days) you will have to use a special stretch mode which expands the picture vertically but not horizontally. This is also the same stretch mode that you would use with letterbox standard broadcast such as Enterprise and ER. (Some DVD players can perform this operation for you instead of you doing it on your TV) It's difficult to give you more specific information on this since I don't know the names of your Hitachi's stretch modes.

Lastly, overscan is intentional but many sets come from the factory with too much overscan. Ideally, overscan would be set to between 4 and 5 percent on all sides with the picture centered. Trying to achieve closer to zero will make it difficult to properly set geometry and convergence at the edges and could result in your seeing the edge of the picture if the source is properly centered. Having more than five percent overscan will result in useful image being cut off. You can test you overscan settings with an overscan test pattern available on most calibration DVDs such as Avia.

Here are some links that will provide more information on the subject:

[Link: thedigitalbits.com]

http://www.widescreen.org/