Aspect ratio

[Darkstar_surfer]

Since most PJ's and screens support 16:9 and a lot of DVD are 2.35:1 how do you cope. On my plasma you don't notice the black bands top and bottom, most of the time.

But a PJ on a white screen would give two white bands, or am I missing something.

[ows90]

You don't get white bars at the top and bottom with 2.35:1 presentations because no picture is projected there, so because the room is dark they appear dark.

Personally I have no problem with it, but it's pretty easy to zoom in to remove them.

[warbie]

I'm guessing you won't notice cause you'll be sitting in the dark? I'll find out when my PJ arrives

[Zone]

Originally Posted by Darkstar_surfer

But a PJ on a white screen would give two white bands, or am I missing something.

You will see (with LCD at least) less than black bars top and bottom, almost a light grey on some, the best method is to have adjustable screen masking dependent on the films aspect ratio.

[Darkstar_surfer]

Still not sure I understand. I thought the idea of the black border was to improve contrast. Therefore if the aspect range is changed does it not spoil the effect.

[Matt_C]

Well, I would have thought that you'd be playing the film through a DVD player right? Well then the situation is the same as it would be on a TV I would guess. The 2.35:1 film is displayed inside a 16:9 frame, so the black bars top and bottom would also be projected onto the screen.....

Course, not having had a projector, I could well be wrong

[Darkstar_surfer]

Ok, switching to stupid mode - How does a projector project black.

[Jammyb]

The idea is the the room is dark enough that the white screen appears to be black, this is helped by the bright parts of the image tricking the brain into making the dark parts appear darker than they are.

The black bars aren't totally black though, this is slightly annoying and leads people to spend a lot of time and money on various solutions to this problem. The best solution is to not worry about it too much and just enjoy the film.

[Mr.D]

Originally Posted by Darkstar_surfer

Ok, switching to stupid mode - How does a projector project black.

Ideally it doesn't , black is absence of light. The visible level of black will be down to how much light the projector can block from the black areas of the image ( unlikley to be zero on any projector even a properly setup CRT) and what the ambient light levels in the room are turn the lights out draw the curtains and your black is never going to get blacker than the screen appears.

If you have a bright enough white level relative to your black level your eyes will percieve the image as having adequate contrast even if the blacks are slightly illuminated. Imagery with low contrast ( dark scenes) might look a bit washed out on projectors with a high black level though. CRT doesn't need to be particularly bright as it has very low black levels , LCD which has comparatively light blacks and needs quite a high white point to display a visually adequate contrast range.

[Darkstar_surfer]

Originally Posted by Jammyb

The black bars aren't totally black though, this is slightly annoying and leads people to spend a lot of time and money on various solutions to this problem. The best solution is to not worry about it too much and just enjoy the film.

Ok, I have it now, I think. It is annoying but if the film is good enough you will not notice the two gray bars top and bottom. I was not sure if light reflections from walls back to the screen would cause the two bars to glow white, which would be unbearable.