Vertically challenged!

[Nimby]

Hi

I hate the black bars at top and bottom of the screen when films are showing on my LX70a.

I've been through the instructions manual several times but it seems to suggest that I can't enlarge the picture to hide the bars. They seem to say this is "normal". I get full screen on the pre-film fillers and titles but the picture always shrinks in height when the film starts! Doesn't 16:9 mean 16:9 any more? Shouldn't we have been told?

On my NAD DVDP I just "zoomed" on the zapper to fill the screen to taste without spoiling the format with fat or thin bods. I lost the edges where the picture overlapped the sides of the screen, of course, but preferred to fill all of my LCD screen. As far as I know I had paid for all of it and not just a horizontal stripe across the middle. Perhaps this is what they mean by Blue Ray?

I've tried all the TV and player format settings I can find but still getting nowhere with these black bars. I have also loaded the latest firmware in case it helped. It didn't. I'm now suffering from instructions manual fatigue and zapper frenzy.

Any advice much appreciated,

Thanks

 

[Big_Si_Owen]

16:9 IS 16:9 (which is also 1:1.78)

However those pesky directors also use other ratios like 1:2.35... These other wider ratios are the ones where you're getting the black bands.

If your TV stretched the picture everyone would be funny proportions, or you'd lose the sides of the picture.

I'd prefer to see it how it was meant to be seen but can understand those who'd rather not have the black bars!

 

[kingfats]

Doesn't 16:9 mean 16:9 any more? Shouldn't we have been told?

Hi.
1.78:1 ratio will fill the whole screen,2.35:1 etc will give you black borders on a W/S display.
All the best.

 

[paulst10]

Not another black borders thread

Not much you can do Nimby mate, that is how the director intended, and IMO how it should be watched. The only thing you can do is zoom in and cut off the sides or only buy 1.85:1 / 1.78:1 movies

Have you watched Dark Knight yet ? you will find that you are missing a little more if you zoom in some scenes are in 1.78:1 IMAX and the rest is 2.4:1 got a little bit of bass in it though

 

[Shaun666]

I'd prefer to see it how it was meant to be seen but can understand those who'd rather not have the black bars!

I can't understand people who prefer to either have parts of the picture missing or to watch a film distorted.

 

[Big_Si_Owen]

I can't understand people who prefer to either have parts of the picture missing or to watch a film distorted.

Agreed!


The trick is to have a screen so big that you can live with the discomfort of losing a bit of size.... God bless projectors

 

[Nimby]

If you lot don't stop it at once with the sackcloth and ashes nonsense about "The Director's Intentions" I'll start going on about all the missing infrasonics and ultrasonics you poor sods are suffering from!

You wouldn't like it if I told you that you are missing all the frequencies above and below the little bit in the middle that you lot are used to sans IB!

If I wanted to watch a stripe I'd buy a letterbox TV. Even then they obviously can't agree on a film format standard so my BD toy should have easy adjustment so I can miss the bits at the edges when I'm ready to sacrifice myself on the alter of Philistinism. <sigh>

In summary: You haven't a clue how to lose the black stripes so you are just making it up as you go along!

I feel a strong email coming on to the managing directors of Pioneer and Sony and.. and... !

Dark Night is a tragic memorial to one of the most talented young actors ever to grace our letterbox screens. He carried the entire film on his own shoulders.

 

[paulst10]

Very good, and back on form I see

 

[Nic Rhodes]

use a video processor.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Maybe some nice curtains to cover the black bars are in order, like at the cinima when the movie is about to start they get pulled back.

In the OP's case the get pulled across the top & bottom of his screen. Could look quite classy as the movie starts.

 

[YellowSphere]

Really, the director's intention is for the picture to be wider than a standard 1.85:1 film, which would mean a projector setup that could cope. It's also worth noting that standards are agreed upon, it depends what sort of look the director is going for when they make the film. Some films don't use the &#8805;2:35:1 frame well enough, but sometimes it can be put to fantastic effect.

In terms of zooming to remove bars on Blu-Rays, this is definitely not something the players would do. Some televisions can do it and some can't. What TV do you have?

 

[Sandman]

You do realise that after zooming in to the picture so the film takes up all your screen real estate you are no longer enjoying 1080p but an upscaled image?
Get Eastern Promises on blu-ray it is one of the best 16/9 pictures I have seen.

 

[skinnywhippet]

I can totally understand why black bars annoy people, yes you don't want the picture stretched out of proportion so that its being viewed in an un-natural format, but what is the point of having a large say 50" screen when you don't use the whole 50" of the screen. Surely a more sensible idea would be to have one sole format adopted by film companys, whether that be 1:78 or 2:35 and only have for sale the appropriate 16:9 or 2:35 tv's to match, thus no more black bar debates.

 

[Nimby]

I have a 100Hz 16:9 JVC 37" LCD.

The height of the bars means I'm getting only about 70% of my money's worth on purchased or hired films. Where do I queue for a refund? TV stations don't mess me about like this in SD or HD.

I continue to believe that black bars are an abomination! Let me add amateurish, childish, pompous, arrogant and downright daft to the list. Not you lot! The film makers!

The majority of screens have moved from the CRT 4:3 standard to the flat screen standard of 16:9 and this size should be respected for home DVD viewing. Do you black out the top and bottom parts of your home or office windows? Or wear slotted blinkers like a medieval knight's visor?

 

[m99]

My first DVD was 2.35:1, where have you been living for more than a decade

 

[Pecker]

I have a 100Hz 16:9 JVC 37" LCD.

The height of the bars means I'm getting only about 70% of my money's worth on purchased or hired films. Where do I queue for a refund? TV stations don't mess me about like this in SD or HD.

I continue to believe that black bars are an abomination! Let me add amateurish, childish, pompous, arrogant and downright daft to the list. Not you lot! The film makers!

The majority of screens have moved from the CRT 4:3 standard to the flat screen standard of 16:9 and this size should be respected for home DVD viewing. Do you black out the top and bottom parts of your home or office windows? Or wear slotted blinkers like a medieval knight's visor?

Hmmm. "The height of the bars means I'm getting only about 70% of my money's worth on purchased or hired films."

Really?

Surely you must accept that, for some of us at least, if they crop the sides of 'scope films to make them fit 16:9 TVs, we're only getting about 70% of our money's worth. We paid for (for example) King Kong, but we'd only be getting 70% of King Kong if it was 'zoomed' to fit 16:9.

If you go to the cinema to see King Kong you might see a 20' or 30' or 40' cinema screen, but you wouldn't moan at the size - you'd only moan if the edges were cropped.

You may have a 32" screen, your neighbour 37", across the road 40", next to him 50", his boss 60", and his boss's boss a 100" projected image. Do they pay different amounts for their TV licence or DVD/BD purchase? Do they expect to?

Of course not! Because we pay these fees for the original content (which is in part defined by shape) and not for size.

Tell me, if BBC2 or BBC4 show a programme on Leonardo's Mona Lisa **, do you complain that it only fills the central portion if the screen, with bars at the sides, or do you accept that this is the work of art as the creator intended it to be seen?

Steve W

** That's Leonardo da Vinci, not Leonardo DiCaprio

SW

 

[YellowSphere]

I continue to believe that black bars are an abomination! Let me add amateurish, childish, pompous, arrogant and downright daft to the list. Not you lot! The film makers!

That is one of the funniest things I have ever read. Films have always been shot with the cinema in mind and always will be, otherwise they'd be made for TV movies (which will always be shot in a way that suits TV viewing).

As I've said already, if you want to use the full height of the screen, and I think that's fair enough, then you should make sure to buy equipment which allows you to do that. If you didn't then the only person you have to blame is yourself.

 

[nwgarratt]

@Nimby

What do you do with 4:3 stuff?

Even cinema has black borders. You just don't see them as the curtains at the side hides them. Most screens are 2.35:1 so even 1.85:1/1.78:1 films will have unused black borders at the sides. Even 2.39:1 films will have small borders top and bottom. You just don't see them in the dark.

A few cinemas don't even have curtains so you get black borders all the time. They turn down the lights before anyone notices.

The same will apply to that crappy 2.35:1 TV from Philips. Anything not 2.35:1 will have black borders at the sides.

I don't want a 2.35:1 film cropped to 1.78:1/16:9.

 

[Nimby]

My first DVD was 2.35:1, where have you been living for more than a decade

I have lived in many places and at many different times.

Did you have any particular decade in mind?

Betamax and Quadrophany Rule! Okay?

 

[mike7]

I think we have to accept that some people like to fill their screens with shiny,shiny big pictures. It does not matter to them that bits of the picture are missing or that the picture is distorted. Best of all is to keep the 'showroom' settings on because that's really nice and bright and colourful! I term this kind of presentation "SkyoVision" because that's how an awful number of people have their TVs set up. And don't forget the main thing is to have a bigger screen than the guy next door even if you have to sit 2 metres in front of a 50" screen and can count the pixels.

Those of us who are a bit more enlightened do the opposite and do remember that films are essentially made for the cinema not for the convenience of TV audiences. Let's not get too upset about people who don't agree with us.

 

[Nimby]

Those of us who are a bit more enlightened do the opposite and do remember that films are essentially made for the cinema not for the convenience of TV audiences. Let's not get too upset about people who don't agree with us.

Enlightened?!? What utter tosh!

A: The official, global DVD sales market is arguably larger than today's total cinema audience. The cinema audience is subjected to advertising despite having paid well for their tickets. I detest advertising after decades of being subjected to dumbed down lies by polluting multinationals with scant respect for humanity or the planet. The blatant nonsense in their get-out-clause subtitles only confirm their guilt in mass consumer deception! No thanks!

B: The cinema audience has long been subjected to attention seeking morons endlessly spoiling the occasion. As ticket sales fall and film making costs rise the studios are desperately seeking revenue elsewhere. I haven't been to the cinema' in decades and nothing short of a straitjacket and threatening behaviour will ever drag me back. Why should I have to listen to the racket made by knuckle-draggers with the attention span of a gnat and an appetite for crisps and inarticulate mobile telephone exchanges with a fellow shop dummy! Empty vessels....

C: When I buy a BD film for upwards of £25 (or its currency equivalent) I fully expect the picture to exactly fit my very expensive, new industry standard, 16:9 TV screen with all the bells and whistles! Though now I seem to have been sold several bits of very expensive kit under the completely false pretences that they somehow matched each other and some completely arbitrary international standard! Yet I am told by "the forum illuminati" to draw the curtains! A deep black pelmet and half mast, black net curtains, suit you Sir? No thanks.

D: Us? The numbers of users of projectors may be rising slowly but remain in use by a vanishing small minority of regular film watchers. Democratically speaking you have no voice and have lost your deposits into the bargain! So stick your anamorphic wotsits where the sun don't shine! At the top and bottom of your dim, fuzzy, badly-misshapen, projection screens! Suits you, Sir? No thankyou very much.

Me? I'll stick with the shiny, shiny, bright pictures and factory settings! It may not be what god, or the director intended, but I do know what I like.

 

[Big_Si_Owen]

Me? I'll stick with the shiny, shiny, bright pictures and factory settings! It may not be what god, or the director intended, but I do know what I like.

Hehehe, you're funny!

Good luck with the campaign. Think you have 2 hopes.... One of them is Bob!

 

[Lunar Wolf]

Well whatever the arguement over black borders, the simple fact is you are getting what you paid for.

The specifications of the movie as it is on the disc are clearly printed on the back of the packaging, audio tracks, subtitles, video definition and ASPECT RATIO.

If you don't like the specification of what your buying then don't buy. Thats the only way you'll be able to convince Hollywood to change anything, moaning about not getting all of whatever you think you've paid for is pointless and has no footing in fact or law.

 

[paulst10]

I think that this will do for this thread, while the borders issue is clearly a concern for some, sadly there is not much that can be done about it, and the usual unconstructive comments do not help the situation one bit