Newbie Quest. On 16:9 Formatting, etc.

Hello:

Just got my first ever DVD player.

A bit confused over formats.

Playing a DVD from library, and it says on the DVD box that it was recorded
in 16:9 format.
When i set the player to this, all looks just great, and the Complete TV
screen is filled up.

However, was playing around some, and when i set the player to 3:2
letterbox, I "think" I am
picking up a bit more pix on the left and right, although there is a black
no-pix band on the top and bottom.

I can of course pick whichever suits me at the moment, but would like to
learn a bit
more about this formatting "stuff."

So,

What setting is correct for the player (the DVD box label of 16:9, or the
3:2)
What do I really want to do ? Why ?

Might someone explain all of this, please ?

Thanks,
Bob

Robert11

Robert11 wrote:
> Might someone explain all of this, please ?

Here's a web page that lays it all out:

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~leopold/Ld/FilmToVideo/

--

"If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in
Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned
out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?"

--C.S. Lewis

Grand Inquisitor

"Robert11" <> wrote in message
news:7bKdna7uOuYN-ErdRVn-...
> What setting is correct for the player (the DVD box label of 16:9, or
the
> 3:2)
> What do I really want to do ? Why ?

You set the DVD player for what type of television you have. You do not
need to change it on a per-disc basis. You should set it once and forget
it.

If you have a widescreen TV, the correct setting for the DVD player is
"16:9".

If you have a non-widescreen TV, the correct setting for the DVD player
is "4:3 Letterbox".

Not all movies will fill your screen. Many of them are not supposed to.
For an explanation, see here:

www.widescreen.org

Joshua Zyber

On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 18:48:16 -0400, "Robert11" <>
wrote, in part:

>Playing a DVD from library, and it says on the DVD box that it was recorded
>in 16:9 format.
>When i set the player to this, all looks just great, and the Complete TV
>screen is filled up.

OK. The setting on your DVD player doesn't have to be changed for each
disk you play. The setting, instead, tells the player what kind of
*TV* you have.

If it's one of those widescreen TVs, where the screen itself is in the
16:9 aspect ratio, you should set it to 16:9. If it's a regular TV,
with a screen that is in the 4:3 aspect ratio, you should tell the DVD
player that, too.

What will happen if you set 16:9 on a regular TV is not that you will
miss out on the left and right sides of the picture. You will still
see the whole picture. But it will be badly distorted, with everything
looking unnaturally tall and skinny.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html

John Savard