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[Buggy Loop]

I get all my DVDs with widescreen version unless its not available (like most of animes), But i was wondering, why are some widescreen movies in "full" widescreen while some still have black borders even though my tv is widescreen compatible and the dvd player settings are for 16:9 widescreen ?

The matrix revolution which i rented for example (waiting for ultimate collection), the movie h as black borders, while when i go in the dvd features and play the theatrical trailer its full widescreen.. :\

Is there something im missing? Is it simply a poor job on the publisher's end? Full widescreen is oh so much better than black borders which i thought would disapear when i would have a 16:9 hdtv, but i havent found many movies that have it.

 

[Hitokage]

Letterbox Widescreen is a full 4:3 frame with the top and bottom filled with black. Anamorphic Widescreen is encoded differently using all of the available 4:3 room to encode for a 16:9 picture, giving greater vertical resolution.

...and yes, this is up to the dvd author.

 

[Error Macro]

Varying aspect ratios. Some movies are shot with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, while most are shot using a 1.85:1 ratio, which is close to 1.78:1 (16x9). All television material shot and composed for high-def is 1.78:1. That's why you don't see the black bars. 1.78:1 material has the black bars chopped off when displayed on your TV. Anything shot wider than that will start displaying black bars on your TV, because the image is wider than your TV will allow.

 

[Hitokage]

Yeah, that too, if that's what you're actually talking about. Many movies simply have wider aspects than 16:9 so even then you'll have some amount of letterboxing.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Ah ok thanks, i checked the movies i have and those who are letterboxed are 2.35:1 in aspect ratio while those that are full screen are 1.85:1

I just hope they dont release 2.35:1 aspect ratio TVs too soon >_<

 

[Shompola]

dont' worry, they won't sell 2.35:1 tv's. And yah you get fullscreen when viewing 1.85:1 in anamorphic mode.

 

[Error Macro]

A very signifigant problem that I hope does not continue, is the cropping of 4:3 material to "fit" 16:9 displays. The one major example of this so far is the DVD release of "Kung-Fu" season one (and soon, season two). They actually cropped the top and bottom of the picture frame, just so it would fill widescreen TVs. That's a damn crime. People complained about "those black bars" when widescreen DVDs were displayed on their 4:3 TVs, now widescreen TV owners are going to complain when things that were originally shot 4:3 (all movies pre-1952, and 98% of television shows) have black bars on the sides of their TVs? Give me a fucking break.