Sagem HD50 G4, DVD Aspect ratio ?

S

Stenning

Guest
Hi All,
Finally got my Sagem 50", love the set & I am v impressed with picture/functionallity.

My question regards the aspect ratio displayed when watching DVD's.
I have only just noticed an issue, which someone may be able to advise me about. When playing a DVD with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio I expected & observed black bars top & bottom of the picture, However I played Matrix Revolutions the other night (Which the sleeve reports as having a widescreen enhanced 1.85:1 aspect ratio) I expected that this would fill the screen as I thought 1.85:1 was approximatley the same as 16:9 format. However upon watching this title with the DVD input source set as 16:9, I observed black bars top & bottom about 2" in width.
The DVD player I am using is a Daewoo DF-4150P (DVD recorder/VCR Combi). This player is connected via component cable to TV, & player is set to output a progressive scan signal.
Is this a problem with my connection method, the prog scan output of the DVD recorder or a setting I have not made correctly ?
Secondly, I am considering purchasing the Sony DVP-NS76H upscaling DVD player, for watching of movies. If I were to connect this via HDMI outputting at either 720p or 1080i, would it cure the problem ?

Kind regards & thanks in advance
Paul
 
My Matrix Revolutions DVD (single disc edition) says 2.40:1! You sure yours says 1.85:1? - as far as I know all 3 were filmed in this format.
Sounds like you pacfaging is wrong and your setup is fine (I have the same TV)
 
16:9 is 1.78:1

Most DVD's are 1.85:1, so you will almost always have black bars at the top and bottom.

Some DVD's are 2.35:1 (wider still), but these are less common. Examples being Lord of the Rings and King Kong.

An upscaling DVD player as you mentioned will make no difference to this, as you are watching them correctly.
 
Thanks for the info, both of you.
Do not misunderstand me, I am not of the "Zooming" brigade who wish to fill their entire screen irrispective format. My concenrn is to see the movie in the correct aspect ratio. I have LOTR trilogy & quite rightly I get black bars top & bottom, however I would have expected the bars on a 1.85:1 movie to be less wide than those on a 2.35:1 movie, not the reverse.


Kind regards
Paul
 
As long as the DVD is anamorphic then 1.85:1 will fill your entire screen (as long as it is set to 16/9 mode).
2.35:1 will have black bars (about 2 inches top & bottom if anamorphic) and I can almost guarantee that the Matrix DVD you have got is not 1.85:1 but 2.40:1 which is why it has black bars and as LOTR is 2.35:1 the Matrix Revolutions will in fact have wider bars.
 
Thanks lancia34,
I suspect you are correct. When I get the chance I will test other dvd's of various aspect ratios.

Regards
Paul
 
Anamorphic does not mean it will fill the entire screen; it simply means that it will fit the screen horizontally.

If you watch a 1.85:1 DVD you will still have black borders top and bottom.
These black borders will be even larger when viewing a 2.35:1 (or 2.40:1 etc.) DVD.

[16 : 9 = 16/9 : 9/9 = 16/9 : 1 = approximately 1.78 : 1]
 
rEVILospud said:
If you watch a 1.85:1 DVD you will still have black borders top and bottom...
Not if the TV is properly adjusted. The tiny black bars will be wholly concealed by overscan.

A 2.35:1 movie should occupy approximately 75% of the height of the screen.
 
Does the TV need to be set to Auto-wide, Panoramic or similar?

EDIT: Also, does that not mean that you are cutting off some of the sides to get the height to fit.

My DVD player is connected via HDMI and outputting at 720p and I get black bars on 1.85:1 material. With this connection only 16:9 and 4:3 options are available in the TV settings.
For overscan to get rid of the black bars it would have to be considerable and a huge ammount of the picture would be lost at the sides too.
 
Have you explored your DVD player's menu and checked that it is set to output a 16x9 signal where present on the disc? You should not have significant (or any visible) black bar if the OAR of the source is 1.85:1.

Most likely cause for what you describe is the DVD player letterboxing the 16x9 signal into 4x3, because it thinks that's what shape your screen is. You need to disabuse it.

The other thing to look for is the shape of objects. Circles should be round (the Universal globe is a good and common example) and not oval. People should be people-shaped and not too fat (or tall).
 
Had a look at my DVDs last night and was quite shocked that they were almost entirely 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, I hadn't really looked before and assumed they were mostly 1.85:1.

I think the fact that LOTR has 2.35:1 aspect ratio but has much bigger bars than all of my other DVD's had confused me a bit.

A small minority of my DVDs fill the screen, these must be the 1.85:1 ones, I will check this, thanks for clearing that up.

My DVD player and TV are both set to standard 16:9, thanks for the tips.
 
Tried R1 Silence of the Lambs, ratio 1.85:1. This title almost filled the screen, just a small 5/8" black bar at top. Also tried Schindlers list, ratio 1.85:1, with same result.
So, as an earlier poster stated, my copy of Matrix Revoloutions does in fact have an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, but the packaging incorrectly states it as 1.85:1.

Thanks & regards to all who replied.
Paul
 

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