Movie watching on iPad 2

[MrMister111]

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Ive started to watch movies a little more now on my iPad 2, and have to say I'm a little disappointed. 

I know the movie has to be in a certain format 16:9 etc, but this playing on an iPad makes half the screen redundant. I know you can double tap to zoom in, but you lose a lot of the movie then. 

eg I rented Che from iTunes to watch on my iPad 2. I'm unsure of screen format, but it plays tiny across middle of screen, if I zoom in, I lose the subtitles on the film, so can't. 

Just seems to me that the iPad with it's great screen is a waste a lot of the time for playing movies. 

Can we not also have a stretch option to fill the screen? Sometimes it may look odd, but as an option it's better - no?

What's others experience/comments please?

Cheers

 

[utdbear0812]

It looks like your movie was ripped wrong.

I play 16:9 all the time, and all it does is letterbox on the top and bottom. 4:3 plays fine on the screen and fills it up.

 

[jca24]

It looks like your movie was ripped wrong.

I play 16:9 all the time, and all it does is letterbox on the top and bottom. 4:3 plays fine on the screen and fills it up.

yup

 

[MrMister111]

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That's what I mean, it's letterbox, this is a movie rented from iTunes so cant be ripped incorrectly?

It just seems a big bug waste of the iPad screen to have a big chunk on top and bottom.

Can we not have a stretch option also to "fit to screen", may not look right buy option is good

 

[utdbear0812]

That's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to letterbox so it can play on an HDTV. It's in 16:9 because that is how it was shot, so it looks right in that aspect ratio. Why would you want to stretch it for the sole purpose of filling the screen?

 

[Dangerous Theory]

That's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to letterbox so it can play on an HDTV. It's in 16:9 because that is how it was shot, so it looks right in that aspect ratio. Why would you want to stretch it for the sole purpose of filling the screen?

Majority of movies are shot in 1.85:1, or 2.35:1.

 

[MrMister111]

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That's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to letterbox so it can play on an HDTV. It's in 16:9 because that is how it was shot, so it looks right in that aspect ratio. Why would you want to stretch it for the sole purpose of filling the screen?

As to use all the screen estate available. As I say just an option to "fit to screen" would be nice. If it looks rubbish, go back to normal view, no problem.

It's just as it's shot in whatever aspect, it's so small on the iPad for viewing, like an inch band on the top and bottom.

 

[xraytech]

I'm trying to see the OP's point but...

Original Aspect Ratio

Stretched to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Original Aspect Ratio

Stretched to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Original Aspect Ratio

Stretched to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Still Yuck


For TV Content, maybe, but I still think it looks terrible.

Original Aspect Ratio

Stretched to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Original Aspect Ratio

Stretched to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Original Aspect Ratio

Stretched to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Just for the sake of argument.

Instead of stretching, let's crop.

Original Aspect Ratio

Cropped to fit iPad Aspect Ratio

Still looks terrible.

 

[MrMister111]

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Thanks for that, but honestly although it obviously doesn't look as good if it's "fit to screen" I still believe that we should be given an option to, rather than the only option currently with zoom/crop.

As I say watching Che with subtitles I cannot use the zoom/crop as it cuts off the subtitles.

Give an end user options and then they can decide I live in hope!!

 

[xraytech]

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Thanks for that, but honestly although it obviously doesn't look as good if it's "fit to screen" I still believe that we should be given an option to, rather than the only option currently with zoom/crop.

As I say watching Che with subtitles I cannot use the zoom/crop as it cuts off the subtitles.

Give an end user options and then they can decide I live in hope!!

Personal pref I guess. For me, it just looks terrible to squish a movie.

 

[redscull]

Apple doesn't generally offer user options. That's more of a Microsoft mindset. Apple wants their products to look good and consistent so they decide what looks good and make you live with it. Now, if there are valid options that all look good, they might give you those as choices. But stretched/cropped movies do not look good; they look like crap. It's not in Apple's best interest to let you choose to make movies look like crap because they don't want others seeing you holding a device that looks like crap. It hurts their brand.

Now personally, I never got why the iPad decided to use a standard definition ratio instead of widescreen. I guess they thought that was easier to hold? Or they think widescreen isn't a good ratio for rotateable apps? I dunno. It makes the iPad a subpar device for movie viewing, that's for sure. But I guess it works well enough for web browsing, book reading, and apps.

My real beef with using an iPad for movies is that the sound output is terrible. The one speaker means no stereo, and it's way too quiet unless you're sitting somewhere in complete silence. Even with headphones plugged in, it simply won't get loud enough to hear over idle airplane noise on a flight. So you have to find battery power boosted bluetooth headphones to even use the speakers.