An occasional problem with "aspect ratio"

I have two movies that I own that seem to have a weird anomaly with regards to the aspect ratio. They are The American President and The Abyss Special Edition. They are both 2.35:1 movies.

I'm using a Pioneer 578 through my Denon 3805 and into my Samsung HL-P4663 DLP.

When playing these two discs, I get only a small display in the center of the screen, approximately like so: (simulated picture)

The above simulates what I'm getting with the player set to widescreen, progressive output, and the monitor set to 4:3. If I set the monitor to 16:9, the image stretches across the full width but looks stretched.

The only way I can mostly fill the screen is to go into the pioneer's menu and turn off the progressive scan. Then, and only then, my Samsung gives me the ability to "zoom" into the image and essentially fill the screen. Neither option is really acceptable: Either a small, good looking picture or a large, non-progressive "zoomed" image.

Now, I understand that the 2.35:1 ratio is going to be much wider than 1.85:1, etc… but why isn't my image still at least filling the screen side to side? I know I'll have black on top and bottom, but why on the sides?

Is this just a weird Samsung anomaly, or are the discs not "flagged" correctly or something?

Mark, my guess is that those DVDs are not anamorphic widescreen. Normally the image is compressed and then stretched to fill the screen. Sounds like the images are stored on the DVD in a normal ratio.

Hopefully someone with a LOT more technical knowledge can chime in.

I have a couple foreign DVDs that I get black bars all the way around. If I stretch the image I can't read the subtitles.

Wow, when The Abyss looks like a cast picture from M*A*S*H you do have a display problem...

With the monitor set to 4:3, you will always have black bars on the left and right. This would be normal. A true 4:3 source program would fill the height, but still have the side bars. The 16:9 setting for the TV monitor should be the correct setting to fill to the sides. You would have black bars on top and bottom to fill in the difference from the 1.78 to 2.35 ratio of the film. It "shouldn't" look stretched at that setting, but I can't explain if you are seeing different. ?

Mark, just sit REALLY close to the TV and then everything will look widescreen!

I had something similar happen with my first version of "The Princess Bride". The picture had a border all around the image, and that was even in 16:9 mode. Later I found out it was the way the DVD was produced. Later they came out with a special edition that works normal in 16:9 mode. Not sure what your problem is Mark..

In reply to:
The 16:9 setting for the TV monitor should be the correct setting to fill to the sides. You would have black bars on top and bottom to fill in the difference from the 1.78 to 2.35 ratio of the film. It "shouldn't" look stretched at that setting, but I can't explain if you are seeing different. ?

When the DLP is in 16:9 widescreen, the image definitely looks stretched... though I'll admit it's relatively subtle...some might not even notice. But faces look a little wide and, more telling, circles are a little oval!

In reply to:
Later I found out it was the way the DVD was produced. Later they came out with a special edition that works normal in 16:9 mode. Not sure what your problem is Mark..

I'm assuming that this is the problem...or the Samsung has a weird glitch that it just doesn't handle that ratio well or something.

My first thought was that it was The American President DVD...which I was surprised was 2.35:1. It's a bit older than some discs and is only a "regular, run-of-the-mill" edition. But when I popped in The Abyss, which is a super-duper Deluxe Collector's Edition, and it did the same thing, I thought it was odd that they would not have authored the disc correctly... though I've often been surprised at how often a commercial release has an overlooked fault.

I'm going to see if I can get my hands on another couple of 2.35:1 discs (regular and anamorphic) and see what happens....

In reply to:
my guess is that those DVDs are not anamorphic widescreen

This is the problem. It is letter boxed.

But even if they are letterboxed, shouldn't they fill the screen side to side?

In reply to:
But even if they are letterboxed, shouldn't they fill the screen side to side?

Not if your monitor is set to 4:3 mode. In 4:3 mode for the display you would always have black bars on the sides.

If the DVDs are not anamorphic, then the player is outputting a 4:3 image regardless if you choose fullscreen or widescreen on the DVD.

You are using the widescreen image but the output is still 4:3 (just with black bars on top/bottom). So when you tell your monitor to use 16:9 mode, it stretches this 4:3 widescreen image accross the width of your TV (making it look stretched/wider).

I would agree that it is probably the DVD's themselves. If they are not anamorphic, then they only look right on a 4:3 TV.

Could be your player not interpreting the aspect ratios from the DVD correctly. Take the DVD's to a friends with a different setup (but still a 16:9 display) and see.

Mine does fill the side to side in the zoom mode. Proportions are correct also.

Yes, a zoom mode on the display would work. It zooms in on the source without modifying the original aspect ratio (in this case a 4:3 letterbox) to make it fill the width of the screen. Good call. Do you have a zoom mode on your display Mark?

Mark,

I think if you cycle through the picture display options on your Samsung, there should be a "zoom" mode that does not stretch or distort the picture to fill the screen. I know my Samsung has that setting, which I occasionally use if I watch a letterboxed movie on IFC or the Sundance channel. There is some loss of clarity of course, but it's a non-HD channel anyway, so sometimes I prefer to fill the screen.

In a somewhat unrelated comment, up top when you mentioned setting your Pioneer to a non-progessive (interlaced) output, it doesn't matter because your Samsung will de-interlace the incoming interlaced video from your Pioneer if the Pioneer is set for an interlaced output. The question is: which de-interlacer does a better job? Your Pioneer or the Samsung? There may be no difference.

Regards,