Blue-Ray or HD DVD

[gabberjawa]

P.S. But I am still confused over Dreamworks ... if Spielberg is so keen on multi-format support, why is Dreamworks following suit with the HD-DVD exc.? Isn't he still a controlling partner?

They sold the studio to Viacom

 

[RoboDad]

Michael Bay has had a chance to sleep on it and has now changed his tune:

He's also a complete idiot. Not (necessarily) for his early morning rant, or even (necessarily) for his early afternoon recant (sincere or forced, as it appears to be). But to make the asinine comment about "drinking the kool aid" shows a level of ignorance that is truly staggering.

 

[dekadentdave]

Michael Bay was replaced by a pod from Invasion of the Body Snatchers while he slept on it.

 

[RoboDad]

Michael Bay was replaced by a pod from Invasion of the Body Snatchers while he slept on it.

Would that be original, or '78, or...?

 

[darth dypshyt]

I guarantee that if there is no clear cut winner before Lucas releases Star Wars (and I mean someone with 75% or more of the market) on HD, it will be multiformat as well.

P.S. But I am still confused over Dreamworks ... if Spielberg is so keen on multi-format support, why is Dreamworks following suit with the HD-DVD exc.? Isn't he still a controlling partner?

Lucas won't release Star Wars on High Definition until there are at least 10 million players of either kind in households..Otherwise, to him, it's not worth the effort, or to put it more in his terms, the $$$$$...Just like it was with DVD....It took years.

 

[Reinhardt]

Lucas won't release Star Wars on High Definition until there are at least 10 million players of either kind in households..Otherwise, to him, it's not worth the effort, or to put it more in his terms, the $$$$$...Just like it was with DVD....It took years.

Ain't THAT the truth. And when he does, it will be some NEW added scenes version because he "lost" the original films... only to find them and double-dip them later (in non-anamorphic), and only with the purchase of the previous version (that everyone has)

 

[Reinhardt]

this doesn't necessarily belong here as it isn't directly related to HD, but didn't want to start a new thread about it:

Question: I have a widescreen HDTV and an HD DVD player, connected via components. I'm watching Seven Samurai on DVD, which is encoded in the original 4x3 aspect ratio of the film. But when I watch it on my TV, it comes stretched, and fills the entire screen.

My HD DVD player is set to 16x9. The Criterion DVD says I should be getting black bars on the left and right of the screen if i'm using a widescreen tv, but i don't see it.

Anyone have any insight?

Thanks!

 

[Andy Bergholtz]

this doesn't necessarily belong here as it isn't directly related to HD, but didn't want to start a new thread about it:

Question: I have a widescreen HDTV and an HD DVD player, connected via components. I'm watching Seven Samurai on DVD, which is encoded in the original 4x3 aspect ratio of the film. But when I watch it on my TV, it comes stretched, and fills the entire screen.

My HD DVD player is set to 16x9. The Criterion DVD says I should be getting black bars on the left and right of the screen if i'm using a widescreen tv, but i don't see it.

Anyone have any insight?

Thanks!

Could it be a setting on your TV display? My TV has options for "wide, zoom, stretch", etc, based on how you want to display certain aspect ratios... Could your TV be set to a 'stretch' mode or something? That would be the first thing I would check.

 

[bagelsncheesey]

this doesn't necessarily belong here as it isn't directly related to HD, but didn't want to start a new thread about it:

Question: I have a widescreen HDTV and an HD DVD player, connected via components. I'm watching Seven Samurai on DVD, which is encoded in the original 4x3 aspect ratio of the film. But when I watch it on my TV, it comes stretched, and fills the entire screen.

My HD DVD player is set to 16x9. The Criterion DVD says I should be getting black bars on the left and right of the screen if i'm using a widescreen tv, but i don't see it.

Anyone have any insight?

Thanks!

i have blu-ray and when i watch a regular dvd that is 4:3 on my widescreen it also fills up the screen. i think this is normal.

 

[Reinhardt]

Could it be a setting on your TV display? My TV has options for "wide, zoom, stretch", etc, based on how you want to display certain aspect ratios... Could your TV be set to a 'stretch' mode or something? That would be the first thing I would check.

i have blu-ray and when i watch a regular dvd that is 4:3 on my widescreen it also fills up the screen. i think this is normal.

Well, when my TV is reading a 480p signal, it only allows me to stretch or zoom the picture. But i figured that the DVD itself had the black bars integrated into the picture to fit a widescreen. But it looks like this is normal then. the only way I can see it in 4x3 is to change my DVD signal to 480i... and then the picture looks horrible!!!

 

[Andy Bergholtz]

A film which was shot in 1:33:1 (like Seven Samurai) filling up a widescreen display is definitely NOT normal. It's exactly the same as a 16:9 movie filling up the screen on a standard 4:6 television, you're missing a large percentage of the picture. If you're ok with this, then don't worry about trying to fix it... But if you want to see the film as it was meant to be seen (in HD or any format), you'll want the black bars on the sides for this particular film.

It sounds to me like you just don't have your TV settings set up quite right. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to view a 1:33:1 transfer in full 1080 HD (I've watched plenty of 4:3 movies on my HD-DVD player at 1080i, the original aspect ratio is not affected).

 

[Reinhardt]

i'm definitely not ok with it, and want it fixed!!

I'll have to look more into this as it is really bothering me.

A film which was shot in 1:33:1 (like Seven Samurai) filling up a widescreen display is definitely NOT normal. It's exactly the same as a 16:9 movie filling up the screen on a standard 4:6 television, you're missing a large percentage of the picture. If you're ok with this, then don't worry about trying to fix it... But if you want to see the film as it was meant to be seen (in HD or any format), you'll want the black bars on the sides for this particular film.

It sounds to me like you just don't have your TV settings set up quite right. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to view a 1:33:1 transfer in full 1080 HD (I've watched plenty of 4:3 movies on my HD-DVD player at 1080i, the original aspect ratio is not affected).

 

[Andy Bergholtz]

i'm definitely not ok with it, and want it fixed!!

I'll have to look more into this as it is really bothering me.

I hear ya... I wish I was more help! Unfortunately I'm bad at diagnosing things like this unless I'm sitting in front of the equipment and can play with the menus, etc. What model of TV do you have? Maybe someone with the same components can chime in with some advice...

 

[Reinhardt]

I hear ya... I wish I was more help! Unfortunately I'm bad at diagnosing things like this unless I'm sitting in front of the equipment and can play with the menus, etc. What model of TV do you have? Maybe someone with the same components can chime in with some advice...

Thanks bro. My tv is the Panasonic CT-34WX50.

On the phone with Panasonic as we speak! and he has NO idea what I am talking about!

 

[Reinhardt]

Hey Andy,

How is your DVD player hooked up to your TV? The guy is basicly telling me that because I have it hooked up via components, my dvd player controls everything, and therefore I can't do it.

As opposed to if it were hooked up via one RCA video cable (which would not give me 480p or anything above that)

 

[Andy Bergholtz]

I've got mine hooked up via HDMI cable. It sounds weird to me that component cables would be the problem, that doesn't make much sense...? Where are the rest of the A/V gurus around here when you need 'em!?

 

[RoboDad]

Reinhardt, it sounds like what you are seeing is happening due to a common problem with HDTVs today. Many of them are designed from the flawed premise that all HD signals that are sent to the TV will be correctly formatted as 16x9, so the TV does not offer any option for reframing the image.

That catch here is that your HD DVD player is upconverting the 4:3 DVD to an HD signal without adding any "windowbox" bars, thus confusing the TV into thinking that it is receiving a widescreen image, which results (as you have seen) in a stretched image.

You don't mention which model of HD DVD player you have, but I think most if not all of them have a setting to force the windowbox bars to be added to 4:3 images, which will fix the problem. Unfortunately it's been a while since I researched it, so I might be wrong.

If all else fails, one thing you can do is to use a second, inexpensive SD DVD player JUST for viewing 4:3 material, since it won't upconvert, and the TV CAN make necessary adjustments when it receives a 4:3 image at 480p.

 

[Reinhardt]

Reinhardt, it sounds like what you are seeing is happening due to a common problem with HDTVs today. Many of them are designed from the flawed premise that all HD signals that are sent to the TV will be correctly formatted as 16x9, so the TV does not offer any option for reframing the image.

That catch here is that your HD DVD player is upconverting the 4:3 DVD to an HD signal without adding any "windowbox" bars, thus confusing the TV into thinking that it is receiving a widescreen image, which results (as you have seen) in a stretched image.

You don't mention which model of HD DVD player you have, but I think most if not all of them have a setting to force the windowbox bars to be added to 4:3 images, which will fix the problem. Unfortunately it's been a while since I researched it, so I might be wrong.

If all else fails, one thing you can do is to use a second, inexpensive SD DVD player JUST for viewing 4:3 material, since it won't upconvert, and the TV CAN make necessary adjustments when it receives a 4:3 image at 480p.

Hey Robo,

It seems as if my tv automatically formats for 16x9 when i feed it a signal of 480p or higher. This is the case for both my standard dvd player, and my HD DVD player (Toshiba HD A2). The only way it seems I can get a 4x3 picture is to turn off progressive scan on the standard dvd player, and thus output at 480i to my TV. But the problem with that is that the picture looks terrible! I didn't see anything about windowbox bars on the HD player, but I'll look again tonight.

Does this make sense?

 

[darthviper107]

Well, with my brother's HDTV he had a menu option (on the actual TV) where you could choose if you wanted it stretched, or cropped and everything like that. The player might not have an option but I would assume that the TV would, especially since for TV most things are in full screen so it would be stupid to not have the option to play it at the correct aspect ratio.

 

[Reinhardt]

Well, with my brother's HDTV he had a menu option (on the actual TV) where you could choose if you wanted it stretched, or cropped and everything like that. The player might not have an option but I would assume that the TV would, especially since for TV most things are in full screen so it would be stupid to not have the option to play it at the correct aspect ratio.

that's the funny thing. when my tv is outputing 480p or higher, it does not give me that option!! only when in 480i. at 480 it only has the options of stretch or zoom.

part of it may be that the tv is 6 years old now! To be honest, i'm amazed that i'm still getting gorgeous 1080i images out of it.