Black bars on ripped hd movies. How do I get rid of them?

I have a couple of movies, I wont say what they are, that I need to know the difference in how they were encoded, ripped, w/e. I have a movie that I downloaded, which says its 720p, however, I have found out that its only 1280x528 or something, due to some technique when ripping the video that makes it that way, and I notice that the movie has black bars at the top whenever I play it on my ps3.

I actually own the movie now, so I'm wondering, why do people refer to 1280x528 as 720p, and how does someone go about ripping the video to ACTUAL 720p? I am not asking how to pirate or anything since I know its forbidden on these forums, but whats up with that? I just want my movies to be fully widescreen, with no black bars whatsoever going across my tv, and want to know why there are black bars on others that I d/l. And btw, I play my movies on a 720p 32inch sony bravia.

Any help would be appreciated, as I want to make backups of dvds and blu-rays that I own, so I can store them on my ps3 without the hassle of trying to find them.

 

Could be that the black bars, top and bottom, mean that your two mystery films are in the 2.35-1 aspect ratio, which means they'll only show properly on your TV in that way...?

 

I suggest you do some research into what Widescreen actually means.

Losing the black bars will mean the film is no longer in Widescreen but Pan and Scan, you will actually be seeing less picture.

Also the resolution of a movie will include the black bars and not just the actual picture, the black bars are part of the image.

 

I like this amazon.com FAQ on black bars:

"Are Blu-ray movies available in full frame?

Blu-ray movies are delivered in the original theatrical aspect ratio, which is widescreen (also known as 16:9 aspect ratio). Since all HDTVs are also widescreen format, generally your movies will fill up the screen. However, depending on the film, sometimes you will see small black bars on the top and bottom of your screen, but significantly smaller than you would see when watching a widescreen movie on a standard definition TV."

So on a proper set you should get only small black bars

 

Actually it reads bigger on a 4:3 tv. Black bars are something you should only get in Harlem.

 

1080i, 720p etc refer to the signal sent from your player and what your TV can handle.

Black bars are to do with the aspect ratio of the film. Something totally different.

'The Seventh Seal' is on blu-ray and 1.37: 1.

I have 'The Abyss' on VHS (and that isn't 720p!) and it's in an aspect ratio of 2.35: 1.

This covers aspect ratios:

http://www.widescreen.org/index.shtml

http://plum.cream.org/HP/

 

Or when they are just plopped on an open matte film. (Couldn't resist)

 

Ok, I'll just give you an example. I downloaded bad santa in 720p, (1280x528 in actual resolution), but then shortly after, I had purchased it, and noticed that it covered the whole screen(which btw, my tv is widescreen) when I was playing the blu-ray version, but not when I was playing the 720p rip I had downloaded. I think what I'm thinking of is aspect ratio, but stop me if I'm wrong on that one.

Is there some way I can alter the aspect ratio to be full widescreen? I can handle 3 or 4 inches of black bars, the small ones, but not when it takes up like 20/30% of the screen for each bar. Again, my tv is a 32 inch lcd sony bravia, if that has anything to do with anything, since I know it will definately have black bars on a 4:3, but since I have this 16:9, I dont think it should do that.

Sorry, I am kind of a noob to this stuff, and I have searched online for help on this before I asked, but either I'm not searching for the right questions, or I just dont get it, so my last option is to have someone spell it out for me.

 

In general terms only, if you send a 4:3 source which contains a widescreen image to a widescreen TV then barring any manipulation you get the letterbox effect. So in this case you are sending a 16:9 source which is actually has a lower resolution image (not by much) in it then when viewed on a 16:9 display you get letterboxed again.
The "home made" file may also be viewed as being a 4:3 source not a widescreen source which would then increase the letterboxing to another degree.

I don't own a PS3 but if I streaming a video via the PC which is widescreen by definition of it's resolution then my media player needs to be told it's dealing with a source I want it to treat as widescreen and hence it fills the 16:9 TV (or not of it's 2.35:1 movie). If I have a 4:3 source and my media player thinks it's widescreen then I get the letterbox effect, with retail or perfect replica media and the inbuilt player this switching would be done automatically.

Some HD televisions don't let you alter HDMI source aspect ratios so perhaps using component or VGA if possible would work.

Does that make any sense at all?

 

A widescreen TV has a ratio of 16:9, which is roughly the same as the film widescreen ratio of 1.78:1. Any movies shot in this ratio will play on a widescreen TV with no black bars.

Films shot with a higher Aspect Ratio - 1.85:1, 2.0:1, 2.35:1 will show black bars, even on a wide screen TV, the bars getting bigger as the ratio increases.

You can use the zoom function or viewing mode on your TV to alter the size of the bars, but you will loose image quality.

 

@starburst - yeah, it makes sense

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciated it. I guess it just depends on the actual movie, and aspect ratio it was shot in, also how it was ripped. Just gotta get lucky I guess like I did with an HD copy of fight club, although I don't know how the hell someone did that, as its not even released on blu-ray or hd dvd.

Anyways thanks again.

 

I think it was JVC that made a 21:9 model TV (probably only available in Japan I would imagine).

This seems kind of pointless though as you'd be trading your top/bottom bars for left/right bars when watching 1.85:1 material or lower.

Best to watch the whole image as the director intended and if that means 'bars' then so be it. IMHO, of course!

 

Totally agree!

 

A film doesnt have to be rippped from Blu-Ray or HD-DVD to be HD, someone probaley capped it from an HD channel like Sky Movies.