Aspect Ratios and Anamorphia

M

morrisb

Guest
Thanks for the info! Good stuff.

If I understand correctly then, a 1:185 movie should result in no black bars on a widescreen tv but won't be as good an image as anamorphic?
 
Morris,

Actually no not quite.

A 1.85:1 non-Amaorphic (or Letterbox as its often called) will have tiny black bars on a Widescreen TV. Sometimes they are not visible because the TV's Geometry has a feature called Overscan which effectively increases the image slightly to remove the bars and hides some far left/right detail.

This is why some TV owners talk about correctly adjusting overscan.

A 1.85:1 Anamorphic Image will normally always fill a Widescreen Image for exactly this reason.

In a direct comparison with all other things being equal a 1.85:1 Anamorphic Transfer will be better than a 1.85:1 non-anamorphic transfer.

Regards Neil.
 
Think of it like this:

The aspect ratio of the film and the DVD being anamorphically enhanced are two separate issues and do not affect each other.

Aspect ratio is just down to how the film was shot.

Anamorphic is simply a method of giving the transfer higher resolution.
 
Apologies if you've answered this a million times, but.....

I'm confused about the different apect ratios that DVDs are presented in and how they tie in with anamorphic prints.

Will an anamorphic film never result in black bars on a widescreen TV or is that solely down to the ratio?

Is 16:9 the same as 1:185?
(sorry my maths is bad!)

Any help would be good!
 

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