Ok..I have a very nice Sony FV300 TV and a good Sony DVD player hooked up to it. They use component connections. The TV has a 16:9 Enhanced viewing mode as does the DVD player. If I set both to the 16:9 settings is that the best possible picture quality I can get? Better than 4:3 and if so what is a basic difference? I am just trying to understand what this mode is. I think I notice a much better picture quality with 16:9 enabled, but hard to tell since i can't have them compared togther. Also, in this 16:9 mode will I get the most out of the DVD's I play? and what if the DVD is not anamorphic or something like that? Can I have this option on with all DVD's regardless and it won't make a difference? Lastly, even in 16:9 I should still have the black bars on top and bottom right, meaning they don't go away in this mode which is totally fine as I know I am getting more picture with them there? If someone could enlighten me a bit I would be so appreciative. Thanks in advance for taking the time.

This message was edited by scott1598 on 05/30/03 12:58.

When you watch an anamorphic or "widescreen enhanced" movie you'll get 25% better vertical resolution and no downsampling artifacts.

To elaborate on Dan's answer:

Letterboxing merely uses the visible horizontal lines you see, and the black bars are part of the total image, and are recorded, taking up 'space'. The lines used to display the black are wasted lines.

Anamorphic widescreen uses all of the available horizontal lines, and then squeezes the image sideways so the entire frame is used, but not proportioned right for display.

When displayed, the picture is "unsqueezed" sideways, but then reduced in size proportionally, so the sides of the image fit the screen, so it looks like letterboxing, but with a difference:

The difference is that all of the lines are squeezed vertically when the image is reduced, and the black bars are filled in electronically. Therefore, all 525 (theoretical) horizontal lines are used in the letterbox-sized image.

So, the difference between letterboxing and anamorphic is the quantity of horizontal lines that are fit into the same-sized image, which means that anamorphic has a higher resolution, i.e., a sharper image.

Actually, any display device that can be adjusted for vertical size can be used to display anamorphic widescreen. TV's are normally not adjustable, which is why the capability must be built into the device, and be defeatable for non-anamorphic video.

Make sense?

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

so basically...keep both settings on 16:9 Enhanced and I will get thee best picture quality possible from most DVD's? Never will I have to use 4:3 Letterbox. Thanks again for all help.

Well, you will rarely have to use letterbox. Not every movie (or at least, not every movie edition) is anamorphically compressed.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Here are some sites with some great background info:

[Link: thedigitalbits.com]
[Link: ryanwright.com]
[Link: widescreen.org]

A very brief explanation on black bars - assuming your DVD player is set to 16:9 and you aren't stretching the pic on your RPTV:
1:85:1 - will fill screen on widescreen TV (very small black bars, but overscan typically pushes them off the endge of the screen)
2:35:1 - will have black bars, even on widescreen TV

The Digital Bits article above explains the differences in the aspect ratios.

Hope that helps! I know they helped me understand the same thing...

Scott

Yes, the aspect ratio is what affects the size of the bars, but the same aspect-ratio-shown movie would look almost the same whether anamorphic or letter-boxed.

The difference between the two would be the lines used to display the image; the anamorphic version would use more lines-per-inch, i.e., a higher resolution.

At least that's what I thunk the question was.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Actually, several lines' worth of time have never been part of the picture; they are above and below the image and are blanked, carrying info and allowing time for the gun's (CRT, the old days) trace to be moved back up to the top of the screen to start making lines again.

Turns out that about 480 horizontal lines are used, which is why 480 x 640 is standard TV, but with a heck of a lot more horizontal resolution.

If I meant to say vertical resolution, shucks, I knew I would get that backwards!