Anyone,
Just received a Mitsubishi 65" HDTV WE-65908 Wide Screen and have a question. I only had about 10 minutes to play with it before going to work, however, I put in the latest James Bond DVD and noticed that black bars still appeared on the top and bottom. Shouldn't those not exist on a widescreen?

Isn't multiple posting against the rules? (Just kidding!)

You must look for 16:9 widescreen formats, these movies come formated for 16:9 widescreen TV's. These movies won't show the black bars. You can still fit the movie in the screen though.

Your screen, which is 16:9, is meant to display 1.85 ratio movies without bars. Where as movies in 2.35 will have small bars. And standard 4:3 is in 1.35. There are other various movie formats but these are most common. I have the mits 65807 and love it if I can help any let me know. My email has changed so post back for now. Good luck

Chris is basically correct but has some wrong math (don't mean to be picking on you tonight!). Your screen is a 16:9 aspect ratio screen, meaning it is 16 units wide X 9 units high. This is also commonly referred to as a 1.77 or 1.78 aspect ratio, NOT the 1.85 Chris indicated (the math is 16/9).

The most common ratios ARE 1.85 and 2.35 as he mentioned, however, a properly setup TV will display black bars on BOTH of these ratios. Only true 16:9 programming will fill the entire screen. This is the official format for HDTV and there are DVDs that were modified to fit a 16:9 screen, such as the Batman series and many Disney productions. There are many others but they escape me right now; I sure we will see the posts!

Also, as a clarification 4:3 is technically 1.33, not 1.35. Again, 4/3=1.333333333333........

FYI, "Enhanced for 16:9" and/or "Enhanced for WideScreen TVs" does NOT mean that it will fill the screen, but, simply that it is an anamorphic presentation. Speaking of which, if you have your DVD set to the wrong aspect ratio and/or have your TV in the wrong mode, YOU can create black bars that don't belong! ALWAYS, first determine if the picture "looks" correct. If people are short and fat looking or cirlcles apear squished vertically, then you need to be in the letterboxed mode. If people are tall and skinny or circles are stretched vertically, then you need your TV to be in the anamorphic or full modes (may be called something else on Mits).

Good luck!

randy

You are correct except TV manufacturers allways setup with slight overscan so 1.85 will fill a 16:9 screen. I am not trying to get too technical when someone asks a basic question. I bet if all he watched was 1.85 movies he would have never asked the question. So I was giving a basic response as to not confuse anyone.

To clarify, TV's are not set up for the purpose of filling the screen, per se, but because, as TV's age, the scanning tends to shrink slightly due to power supply sag, and would otherwise begin to UNDER-scan, and begin to show black edges with any program material.

I guess that means they overscan so they will ALWAYS fill the screen.

Larry

Chris,

I understand that your first response was "basic", but some people read things like this and start quoting them as experts so why not be correct? After all, 1.35 vs 1.33 is still the same number of digits. It is just one is wrong.

BTW,I have owned 3 brands of rear projection (Runco, Pioneer Elite & Toshiba) and two plasmas (Runco, Pioneer Elite) and NONE have filled the screen with 1.85 movies. If your Mits does, then they have allowed for WAY too much overscan and you are missing some image on true 16:9 programming. Probably not noticed by most people, but some movies with extreme subtitling might chop some of the letters!

I also own a front projector which is properly setup and displays bars on 1.85 movies.

randy