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Got a dvd for x-mas and have finally, I think, sorted out the basic understanding of ratios....
Am i correct that in general....:
One would want a 16:9 widescreen if DVD watching is first priority
One would want a 4:3 tv if regular tv watching is priority....
& when one watches cable tv broadcasts on a widescreen *it is not full screen*(i.e. it will have either bars or something
(and is this for everything that is broadcast?)Hey....I need to obsess about *something* while my CDP gets repaired!
thanks!
Follow Ups:
Still conflicted...still haven't bought the big TV (roofers & contractors have family room trashed)... so...I think I understand the dilemma: no matter what, if you're watching both cable & DVD, you will have to endure bars somewhere-somehow-sometimes - inevitable.Since one set will be doing double duty for TV & movies (40/60)in our household, we had decided to go for a direct view 4/3 Sony XBR (36 or 42). Whew. What a relief...until...
We were sitting in the local multiplex seeing LOTR for the second time this week and G. turns to me and says (during Mines of Moria sequence): "Bigger TV, much bigger TV." Yup, for flicks, bigger is better. Wider is better. I wish I could just commit to large widescreen and quit worrying about how badly some material is gonna suck. I don't have any excuses - my Cary cdp is working perfectly.
Sigh.
Sadly, I've found that I can't find just one setting and leave it there. Most DVD's work with 16:9 and "full" (i.e., anamorphic), but some classic films are best watched with 16:9 and "standard" (not anamorphic) and a few super wide DVD work best with 4:3 and "wide" (expands non-anamorphically to fill a 16:9 screen with a letterboxed image).For cable, I set my TV to 16:9 and "standard" which fills it top to bottom but leave right and left bands empty giving me a 4:3 image. Howver, a few programs on Discovery aand PBS and ST:Enterprise are presented letterbox so for these I change "Standard" to "wide".
Confused? Me too. All the above terminology related to a Toshiba RPTV. I imagine each make has it's own equivalent. But the point is that unless you have an unusually clear owners manual you have to check out the various combinations until you find the one the works for each case.
hi Susan,i didn't understand a word of your post, nor do i understand John's response, but I do believe i understand the confusion part
i recently purchased a 16:9 set with a built-in doubler/scaler.
i receive my network feed from the 100% digital Directv satellites (you need two satellites to get HD programming)here's what i've deduced about the "scaling" issues you address in your post:
with 4:3 or "normal" television—the worldview we all grew up with that was endorsed and established by our parents-- you get black lines on the sides of your 16:9 viewscreen. the owner's manual for the display warns in big black letters that this will cause permanent damage to the mindset if you continue to watch like this. the manual also notes that the display of unmoving logos will "burn-out" that area of the brain. all broadcasts either over the air, on cable, or via satellite send unmoving logos to the lower right corner of the screen--thus assuring a "churning" of new television purchases every 2 or 3 years. Oh...the manual also warns against "crawlers"...the moving text lines broadcast in startling prose by every (pardon the expression) news network. i just wanted to assure you that the FBI has not rescinded the "high alert" admonition--they want us all to remain in a enhanced state of psychological terror at least until the chief justice of the supreme court re-elects sheriff (wanted: dead or blowed-up) shrubbery.
Widescream: with shows broadcast in Widescream (ie: the West Wing on NBC) you will get a screen filled with information...actually, it will be overfilled--the "high-alert" crawlers at the bottom of the screen may be partly cut-off, thus causing an even more "enhanced" state of alertness in the viewer because you can't read the latest update on the inability of the CIA or special forces to determine the last known reliable location of Dick Cheney.
What you can do is use some of the options on the tv for "scaling".
you can try the "zoom" option, which "blows up" (the president favors this option) the picture in such a way that you can't find or doubt the reliable location of all the pixels around the edges. this takes advantage of smart bomb technology to burrow deep into the assumed central structure of the situation, and blows it up, leaving the fringe areas to the Northern Alliance and Noam Chomsky. at least, that's what Rumsfeld says, but we can't be sure because nobody can see what Ashcroft and Cheney are doing just off the screen--i always feel a bit uneazy with the zoom solution to terrorism--I mean television. there's something distorted about it that only a warped mind could ever be comfortable with.
then there's the "justify" option. This scaler solution “fills in the blanks”. I don’t know how they do it but the unknown areas signified by black bars on the top and bottom of the cell are mysteriously hidden and filled in with what appears to be a normal situation. All the Arab-Americans suddenly disappear and everything goes back to “normal”. It’s not normal though because the whole image is bigger than before, almost as if we’ve taken on more than we can handle. It is an amazing thing to see—I don’t understand it at all.
“Full”: this is the option you use when you watch DVD’s like Apocalypse Now Redux. You’ll see huge bands of unknown areas at the top and bottom, like rows of dominoes. In between is a thin band stretching from horizon to horizon. If forces you to squint like when your have to look for something directly into the rising sun—almost more than you can see without constant diligance—scanning your attention back and forth—head on a swivel--you have the feeling that even though it’s clearly all there in plain view, you somehow lack the ability to comprehend the full impact of the situation. But this is the way the world is; this is the future, where we’re going to spend the rest of our lives.
And finally there’s “Auto”. There’s no thinking at all here. On my tv it’s called “Panasonic Auto”. This multi-national corporation has done all the work for you, and pre-selects the images that best suit the goals of the new world order. You may notice that occasionally black bands will appear here and there, and then just as suddenly disappear, without any rhyme or reason. And sometimes you get a hint of distortion—a brief uneasiness that the people talking to you are a bit warped—that they just don’t look or move like the kind of folk you interact with when you’re not staring at the screen…. It's something we all can get used to though, because you just don't have to think about it.
"You can get used to anything, even hanging, if you live long enough."
I hope this clears up the waters.dy/dx
So much for the Lefty bloviating. Btw, can you imagine Stooge Reno ever recusing herself from anything?
So much for the Lefty bloviating.
however, yours was an award winner and probably the funniest post I've ever read.I think maybe I'll just go to a movie theatre. :)
"One would want a 16:9 widescreen if DVD watching is first priority
One would want a 4:3 tv if regular tv watching is priority....
& when one watches cable tv broadcasts on a widescreen *it is not full screen*(i.e. it will have either bars or something
(and is this for everything that is broadcast?)"Hi Susan
You are generally correct but what you end up seeing out of the DVD player could depend on how it is set up. If the screen is not very large you might prefer to see DVDs in 4:3 format and this is an option on most DVD players, something I was slow to realise myself until I studied the instruction booklet (desperate last measure!!! but, in defence, most are poorly written [by nerds?] and make heavy going of what should be easy to follow).
We have a projection TV and I usually blow up 4:3 so it takes up the whole 16:9 screen. However this can reduce resolution on poorer material and can be tricky with subtitles so we have a variety of formats to choose from. My wife gets a bit irritated by scalped craniums so we sometimes compromise with a screen which is mid way between 4:3 & 16:9.
John
Peace at AA
If the screen is not very large you might prefer to see DVDs in 4:3 format and this is an option on most DVD players...John,
You're referring to scaling I believe (some call it zoom which is probably just as accurate) and I don't think it's on that many DVD players. My Panasonic has it, but not my Sony. I do normally do the same thing as you, if it's a 4:3, I zoom to fill the sides and lose the top and bottom (some, not much). One movie in particular is Eyes Wide Shut.
Even though my Sony doesn't scale/zoom, my Pioneer RPTV can, though the quality was in fact quite a bit compromised compared to doing the same thing on the Panasonic player.
IME.
-- Greg
please? I was questioning that statement about 4:3 too, because of my recent experience, but I'm a total DVDP newbie. I have "regular" TV's (4:3) and I didn't find a DVDP that would scale everything to that as an obvious setup option. It was tough to tell in stores, the DVDP's are all hooked up to much newer TV's than mine, the manuals are typically not very clear, the salespeople not that knowledgable, etc. So I have been viewing anamorphic (?) etc. movies using the DVDP's "widescreen" mode - not the same as 4:3 scaling, but fills much more of the screen, clearer than the zoom, don't miss a lot... Maybe down under they get different features on DVDP's, but I'm really wondering how common the 4:3 scaling might be in NA, because I sure would like to have that feature, and I can still return my DVDP for one that has it if it really is common here. Thanks.
You can't take a movie that is widescreen and make it fit a 4:3 without truncating the sides or making look goofy. So, what I will do if I have a 4:3 movie and want to fill my widescreen, I "zoom" (or scale) the picture proportionally so it fits the sides and I lose top and bottom image. If you have a 4:3 TV, this isn't an option...you'll just have to get used to widescreen (like I did the first 2 years I had DVD) or start shopping. I'd rather watch a movie in its original format than P&S (on 4:3). But that's just me.-- Greg
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