Widescreen/Full Screen DVD Con!

[admin_exported]

Just got a copy of Casino Royale on DVD. Playing through a Samsung DVD 870 ( soon to be replaced with a Denon DVD 1940) and the screen on my Samsung 1024 X 768 resolution plasma is taken up with a bold balck bar along the top and bottom of the display.

The TV is set to 16.9 but the DVD's Aspect Ratio is: 2.40.1.

Why can't I fill the whole dispaly of the TV........Am I being short changed here?

I've also noticed that there a different versions of DVD's in the shops. For example Harry Potter and Casino Royale are at different prices....why is this? Is it because some of the same named DVD films are shot in different Aspect Ratios.? Can I get a copy of Casino Royale to fill my screen without compromising on the picture quality?

The more I read and look into all this the more I can't help feeling that millions of us are being conned out of our money?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Think you've fnally lost the plot, TH!

The film is shot at 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, so that's what you get when you buy a widescreen DVD - the original aspect ratio, as seen in cinema. You don't really want it squeezed or panned and scanned to fill the screen, do you?

Some films are available in 'full-screen' versions - ie reformatted to fit the screen, but you lose stuff off the sides of the frame, and sometimes there are awkward electronic pans to keep all the action in. No thanks - give me original aspect ratio every time.

Different versions at different prices? Can be one-disc or two-disc versions, or different sets of extras, or the one with four 'free' postcards and so on and so forth... While there are collectors, there will be 'special editions'...

Or it could just be a global conspiracy that only you've noticed...

 

[Anonymous]

hi
it doesnt matter what resolution the tv is,all widescreen tvs are 1:85:1 some movies are released in 1:85:1 most of them in 2:35:1 and 2:40:1 this is why you get bars top and bottom you could use zoom mode on tv to fill screen but it stretches the picture another option is region 1 dvds most of them have original aspect as well as 1:85:1 specially formatted to fit the screen, in usa they give you option to buy widescreen which is 2:35:1 and fullscreen which is 1:85:1,the fullscreen versions will fill the whole screen .if you have a 50 inc srceen its not so bad but it can be annoying at times especially when you pay good money and alot of the time you arent using fullscreen. the denon is multiregion so you could buy region 1 discs, dont know if you can get casino royale in fullscreen mode, but i can check.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Andrew....Is it any wonder I've almost lost the ruddy Plot!?

Months of anguishing over which TV to buy.....hearing and auditioning many in the run up to my COMET purchase..........then onto trying to find a worthy DVD partner to my TV.....and the reading I've done in the process which often leaves most of us wanting to run towards Beachy Head as we're no clearer at the end of it all as to what we really should buy such is this complex minefield of picture and sound quality.

Still...........that's why we should all be grateful there are at least people like you around on these forums to quell such frustrations by giving us peace of mind through good advice, thus pulling us before we're about to 'go over the edge'.

Don't know why they call it Anamorphic anyway.........To me the picture looks more like...... Anorexic