16:9 Aspect question

[Falcongaurd]

This board is great! alot of knowlegable people here. A question then from a novice... My screen is 16:9. HDTV fills the screen top to bottom left to right. If i watch a widescreen movie ie, Incredibles, star wars, I'll have bars on the top and bottom. I can correct this by putting the projector into letterbox mode, but it makes everyone look long. What can I do? Anything? Thank you in advance.

[purplepeople]

As I understand, TV and classic movies are 4:3 or 1.33 aspect. Normal theatre or "flat" is 1.85 or just over 16:9 and Panavision/Cinemascope is 2.35. Scope will produce letterbox even on a 16:9 display. Since DVDs are only labelled widescreen or fullscreen, it is not possible to tell if the original was filmed in flat or scope. Hope this helps.

ensen.

[Shane Martin]

it is not possible to tell if the original was filmed in flat or scope.

It's very easy to tell because it's on the back cover of the dvd.

Movies were made for a movie screen not your TV thus the ratios will not be correct. HDTV was a compromise between what we have now 1.33 and what many movies are made in which is 2.35.

Movies > 1.85 will show black bars on the screen. You can zoom them out but it distorts the picture.

Your choices are:

1. Ignore the black bars and enjoy lots of titles. Its' easy to do when you watch movies in the dark. Since the room is dark, all you will see is the frame of the movie unless something isn't setup right.

2. Zoom them out. Distorts the screen and causes issues. Not ideal and frankly looks awful.

3. Refuse to watch anything that isn't 1.85 or 1.78. Pretty stupid if you ask me but some folks are adamant about their black bars. This of course shuts you out of movies like Star Wars, Ben Hur, Laurence of Arabia, Lord of the Rings etc.

Keep also in mind that because it's HDTV it doesn't mean that all HDTV programs will be 1.78 and fill your screen. There is still ALOT of shows being shown on HDTV that are shown in their original aspect ratio.

Also, you will see some other aspect ratios such as:

2.76:1 Ben Hur
2.0:1 Apocalypse Now
1.66:1 Mostly disney. Should fill the screen.
1.33:1 old academy movies and TV shows. Will do side bars unless you stretch them.

Hope this helps.

[George Bellefontaine]

A lot of us with fixed wall screens use mattes to cover the black bars for those 2:35 flicks. Click on my homepage and the first pic shows my screen in the 2:35 format. But the screen is actually a 1:85.

[draganm]

I wish film-makers would just do-away with 2.35 anamorphic widescreen. It's rather pointless and 1.85 is such a nice size to watch, not too wide, not too tall. I enjoy 1.85 movies like Spiderman, Saving private Ryan, Castaway and others more from a pic quality perpsective than any 2.35 : 1 movie.

[George Bellefontaine]

2:35 is actually a favorite of mine with action flicks and films big on cinematography like Lawrence Of Arabia, Open Range and others. If your screen is wide enough 2:35 can be quite nice, but on smaller screens I can see why some wouldn't like it. My screen is 92" wide and 52" high and that is quite good for 2:35.

[wildfire99]

Constant height setup/projection does away with all this worry.

[Shane Martin]

I wish film-makers would just do-away with 2.35 anamorphic widescreen

So you want Filmmakers to quit what they do best which is compose for specific aspect ratios and film movies that are better for your TV?

Tell me that is not hilarious.

[Falcongaurd]

Thanks

I have resigned myself to watching the widescreen version with bars. I just raised the screen a little and I only had the top bar. I really don't mind it at all. After all, it's the way the director intended it to be seen right? Thanks for the info!

[Rolyasm]

Hey George,
Not to hi-jack this thread, but I want to do some curtains like yours. Do you have them motorized or are they fixed on the sides. Anyone know of a good motor-setup to pull the curtains apart with remote? Thanks.
Roly

[George Bellefontaine]

Sorry, Roly, mine aren't motorized. They are on extended curtain rods that sit on metal L-brackets. I move them out of the way for 1:85 . For 4:3 I use black panels that hang over the frame on each side. It's all manual.

[caleb]

Why not just ignore the black bars and enjoy the movies?

Cheapest option in my opinion.

[George Bellefontaine]

Why not just ignore the black bars and enjoy the movie.

Couple of reasons. Many digital projectors do not project solid black bars and some find that distracting. The other thing is, black mattes around the projected image can help increase the contrast. But hey, if the black bars don't annoy you, go ahead and enjoy the movie.

[draganm]

So you want Filmmakers to quit what they do best which is compose for specific aspect ratios and film movies that are better for your TV?
Tell me that is not hilarious.

TV? you watch movies on a TV I project on a 7 foot wide 4 foot tall 16:9 screen that I sit 9 feet away from. Yes, a 16:9 movie is much more involving than 2:35, I feel like 2:35 is a narrow view on things, like looking through a slit. I don't care if they're "composing" for a Harkins theatre, commercial theatres are unbearable, even after many pints of beer. If they offered a cropped version of 2.35:1 movies in 1.85 I would buy them instead.

[George Bellefontaine]

If they offered a cropped version of 2.35:1 movies in 1.85 I would buy them instead.

Unfortunately for those of us who prefer original theatrical aspect ratio releases on dvd, some studios are indeed offering 2:35 cropped to 1:78 ar transfers. A recent title is Lord Of War.

My screen is 52" x 92" wide and frankly, I rather enjoy the 2:35 scope picture on many films, especially the action ones.

[draganm]

Unfortunately for those of us who prefer original theatrical aspect ratio releases on dvd, some studios are indeed offering 2:35 cropped to 1:78 ar transfers. A recent title is Lord Of War.

My screen is 52" x 92" wide and frankly, I rather enjoy the 2:35 scope picture on many films, especially the action ones.

thanks for the tip george, added Lord of War to my Netflix queue. I think I might not be bothered with 2.35:1 if I was running a bigger screen like 9 feet wide. Unfortunately to run that size with a CRT projector would require a 9" machine and those are still holding their value very well on the used market. someday the killer deal will come along though, and then I will be making a few changes at once.

[Dean McManis]

TV? you watch movies on a TV I project on a 7 foot wide 4 foot tall 16:9 screen that I sit 9 feet away from. Yes, a 16:9 movie is much more involving than 2:35, I feel like 2:35 is a narrow view on things, like looking through a slit. I don't care if they're "composing" for a Harkins theatre, commercial theatres are unbearable, even after many pints of beer. If they offered a cropped version of 2.35:1 movies in 1.85 I would buy them instead.

I've heard MANY people use the same argument to support their ideas on pan-and-scan 4:3 (1.33:1) formatting of widescreen movies.

Usually there are zoom modes with most displays that will blow up the image (and chop off the sides) to fit it on a taller screen.

Thankfully, we have the option to view most movies in their theatrical format.
At least on widescreen DVD and movies broadcast on HDTV.

I prefer 2.35:1 formatting for epic, action, and sci-fi movies. When they are shot that way, there is no better way of watching them but in the properly matching theatrical format. :T

As an aside, more movies are incidentally coming out now in 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 formatting, and still more will be coming out because high definition resolution is natively 16:9 (1.78:1) format. Especially with many movie theaters moving to digital projectors soon. 8)

[H.T.C]

In the theater flat always meant movies that are filmed in a flat or round lens and scope meant movies that are filmed with a oval lens aka "widescreen".

It might have been better to market the new sets as ultra flat instead of widescreen so as not to cause a confuson.