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Widescreen DVDs a no-go?

Sutekidane

Sutekidane

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
936
2
I just got Lord of the Rings on dvd. Its the widescreen version of the movie. I assumed that since I owned a 20" iMac and a 15.2" widescreen powerbook, that it would play in widescreen and look great. However, when I play the movie it has quite large bands at the top and bottom, It looks like only half of the screen is filled up :( . I tried both apple dvd player and VLC with the same result. Any suggestions?
 
Very few films are actually filmed in the widescreen that TV's are in (16:9), and I think widescreen monitors are 16:10(?). Most widescreen DVD's are actually leterbox (2.35:1 or there abouts). This is why you have black lines at the top and bottom.
 
Your widescreen LCDs have a ratio of 1.66. The DVD movies have a ratio of Panavision which is 1.85, so even on your widescreen LCD, there'll still be black bars on the top and bottom. This is normal. Not all DVDs are 1.85. DVDs such as Sideways use the full anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.66. To get 1.85, they shrink the image which gives you the black bars.
 
Lacero said:
Your widescreen LCDs have a ratio of 1.66. The DVD movies have a ratio of Panavision which is 1.85, so even on your widescreen LCD, there'll still be black bars on the top and bottom. This is normal. Not all DVDs are 1.85. DVDs such as Sideways use the full anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.66. To get 1.85, they shrink the image which gives you the black bars.
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That would create minimal barage, but like e said, LOTR is 2.35:1 so it is much wider. No screen in the world, save that of the movie theater, could handle that in full screen.
 
Thanks for the reply, I don't really have any response except how annoying. *sigh* I guess I'll go back to watching it on 50% of my 20" display.
 
Sutekidane said:
Thanks for the reply, I don't really have any response except how annoying. *sigh* I guess I'll go back to watching it on 50% of my 20" display.
Click to expand...
Could be worse...could be pan-and-scan. THEN you'd be full screen :rolleyes:
 
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