My father-unit bought a new LG 37" LCD TV this week and today I was helping him set everything up. Everything is working fine except that when we play a DVD, even if the TV is set to 16:9, the movie image doesn't fill the screen. The correct aspect ratio is showing, but the image is floating in the middle of the screen, with black all around it. Anyone know what this problem is? It's likely something stupidly simple that we've missed, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
One of two things could be happening. 1) It's a "fake" widescreen DVD. In other words, NOT anamorphic. The only thing to do is see if the TV can zoom in on the image (some do). The best solution is to throw the DVD out and only buy anamorphic DVDs. 2) The disc may be anamorphic but the DVD player is providing a letter-boxed image instead of an anamorphic one. Check the DVD remote's menu. Does the machine have settings for that? Also, what connection is it? Many players give a letter-boxed image from the composite (yellow RCA) but a widescreen from the S-Video or Component (RGB) connections. Try a different connection and see if that helps. If it's option #2 and you can't fix it, buy a new DVD player. Even the cheap ones do this right nowadays whereas the old ones sometimes mess it up.
I think there is a third possibility also. If the movie has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, then there will still be black bars because it is wider than 16:9. The Digital Bits - Anamorphic vs. Non-Anamorphic DVD(2.35:1 Aspect Ratio Film)
Yep. Studios don't want you to be able to stay home and see exactly what you could if you paid to go out to a theater. As a result, we're pretty much always going to have some form of black bars on our screens when it comes to true presentation of feature films; the studios want to give us a reason to spend more money. However, the black bars should be smaller on a 16:9 widescreen tv, so you do still get to see a bigger image than you would on an old square job.
Hey, this was great! The bottom left image of this page is the issue we were having. Now I just gotta find an anamorphic widescreen movie amongst our collection and test this theory... Update: Frak! We were hoping this would solve matters, but I tried an anamorphic DVD as a test (King Kong), but it still plays the widescreen image with black bars all around (like a matte frame). I'll try Small White Car's 2nd suggestion with the DVD player settings and see if that works...
King Kong is 2.35:1 so there will still be black bars even though it is anamorphic. Only 16:9 Anamorphic movies will not have black bars. Are you getting grey bars (pillarbox) like in the bottom left image? Kind Kong should look like the bottom right image on a 16:9 TV.
On my TV remote there is a button called "wide" that changes the picture mode between "Normal", "Wide", "Zoom" and "Panoramic". When it's set on "Normal" I sometimes get this effect. Check your TV owner's manual to see if there is a section on viewing or picture modes.
After re-reading your post, I now realize that it says black bars all around, not just on the top and bottom. That's definitely not how an anamorphic film should look. I guess try checking the DVD player and TV settings as has been suggested.
This was exactly the problem! Once the playback setting on the DVD player was changed to 16:9, the movie filled the space beautifully!! (Watched the Kong vs. T-rexes scenes -- amazing!) Anyway, problem solved! Thanks, everybody!
This makes no sense whatsoever. You act as if every movie ever released is 2.35:1 and the studios and electronics makers conspired to release only 16:9 televisions so people would have to deal with black bars. There are plenty of feature films out there that are 16:9. Could you imagine the backlash if the TV makers had chosen a 2.35:1 aspect ratio instead of 16:9 with the common fool and their love of all things 4:3? They'd be stretching everything so that the most anorexic actors looked like Jabba the Hutt.
Really? For the past several years, I get two new feature film releases a week from Netflix, and I've only see a handful that were 16:9 (and I've wondered if even those few were just the new version of pan and scan).
Well, more accurately, they tend to be around 1.78:1...rather than 16:9. The wider features will leave minimal black bars at the top and bottom, but the 1.78:1 stuff (essentially 16:9) should fill your average widescreen tv. Though, not all are created equal. When the black bars all around happens on a DVD, my #1 guess is always the tv settings. It is occasionally the non-anamorphic DVD, but since I only have a couple of those in my entire collection, it's rarely the case. You'll also end up with black bars on all four sides with widescreen tv shows that are shown on non-HDTV channels (as in a few things like Atlantis and BSG).
You know what's really cool about the Trekbbs? It has PM's so you can carry on conversations like the above without wandering off topic. Who'd a thunk?!?