Blue ray display size problem

[admin_exported]

I am new to this so am probably asking a stupid question but here goes anyway.

My new blueray player is outputting a picture with black bands top and bottom whenever I play a dvd disc and with some blue ray discs. However my copy of the "Planet Earth" in blue ray is displayed full screen. I have tried changing settings on the dispay but whenever the player starts the picture reverts to a letter box. Am I missing a setting somewhere or is this something peculiar to my player? My dvd player used to output everything at full screen so I am at a loss as to what needs changing, TV settings or Blue Ray player settings?

Equipment is all Pioneer; Player is BDP- LX71 , Av amplifier is SC-lx71 Display is PDP-436XDE

 

[Anonymous]

You are not missing anything. That was the intension of the director and that's how you will see it sonny boy.

 

[nads]

have you set the out put from the player?

Mine i had to tell it what type of screen i have.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your interest guys I appreciate it.

I will re read the manuals and try again but I am still at a loss as to why a movie that always played full screen on DVD is now showing as wide screen.

 

[ElectroMan]

Does the aspect ratio look okay, or does it look squashed or stretched as well as having black bands?

And does the box say the aspect ratio is 2.35:1? If so, then even if it's anamorphic then it should display with black bands.

Maybe you could name some of the discs affected.

(P.S. You'd get more attention to this if you posted it under Home Cinema or TVs and Projectors!)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the interest and advice Electroman.

All my standard Definition DVD collection seem to play on new player as letterbox shape but no distortion although on the previous Pioneer player they all filled the screen.

Blue ray discs Planet Earth display is 16.9 and screens at 1080i filling screen

Band of Brothers blue ray 16.9 (1.78:1 on box) displays as letterbox

Seems like I might just have to live with it.

 

[Tonya]

The simple rule here is that productions that are ultimately aimed at TV are usually shot with 16:9 in mind. However a cinema screen is anything but 16:9 and there are several film formats/ratios out there. Most film directors insist on their feature presentations being encoded to DVD/BluRay using the original screen format as they shot it for the cinema screen, which results in a varying degree of black bars above and below the picture. The other alternative at the mastering stage is to use "pan & scan" remastering, where an operator literally decides which part of the original frame is most important, but you will miss any action that is far left or right of the screen. In the early days of DVD, some discs were actually pressed with the widescreen version on one side and the "formatted for your TV" pan & scan version on the other (initial UK releases of the Lethal Weapon franchise spring to mind). So having black bars is perfectly normal when watching material sourced from cinema releases. At least you get to see all the action as the director intended. As reported elsewhere within this excellent site, Phillips are releasing a true cinema format TV, but then you will have another problem : cinema format will look perfect but now your black bars will appear to the left and right of said screen when watching non-cinema material.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Tonya.

Very well explained. Like I said at the beginning I am new to this so was probably asking a stupid question anyway.

I am still having difficulty getting my head round the question of how the films played full screen on my previous player but it is not that important as I am just going to play and enjoy them on the new gear.

Thanks to everyone out there and hope some one else learnd from my lack of knowledge.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

On your player set your TV type to 16:9 and your video output to widescreen. It may be that you new player has differant settings for BD and DVD.