I recently got Panasonics newest Plasma 50" widescreen. I was watching Lord of the Rings Special Extended edition to see how it would look on there. I noticed that the blackbars are rather huge.. something you would see on a 4:3 TV. I was expecting them to a be more narrow.. or is this normal? I sure hope not! I have THX monster component cables btw. Actually all my DVDs have the huge black bars except for the fullscreen ones. I also use Panasonic SC-HT900 for my DVDplayer and home theater.
Alright well that seemed to work. I have it on zoomed but doesnt that take away PQ?I dont think the picture isnt that great looking.. maybe I've spoiled myself with too much HD.. but are you SUPPOSE to have to have it zoomed?
Are the black lines on the top and bottom of the screen, or on the sides? If they are on the top and bottom, that is normal, because the film is shot at 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is wider than the 16X9 screen of the plasma. To watch the movie in the aspect ratio that the director intended it to be in, you have to have the black bars. Otherwise you are free to zoom in, and you will lose just a little picture off the sides of the screen. For a brand new plasma, it may be better to do the zoom instead of having black bars until it is broken in.
Yes I know the black bars are suppose to be there, but in my case I wouldnt think it'd be normal to have HUGE black bars instead of the more narrow ones I was expecting. It looks as if its playing on a 4:3 set. but I think I now I found the solution.. instead of zoomed I choosed Full and that seemed to do the trick. I get more of the picture now than the bars.
You probably have your DVD player set for 4x3 TV instead of a 16x9 TV. This will cause the huge black bars you are seeing. For 4x3 TVs, DVD players add black bars and stretch the picture of an anamorphic DVD. For 16x9 TVs, DVD players does not add black bars and does not stretch the picture. Instead it allows the TV to stretch the picture appropriately.
If the player is set to a 4x3 TV on a widescreen TV, you'll get huge black bars and a picture that looks distorted and stretched. This is because the DVD player is adding unnecessary black bars and then both the DVD player and TV stretch, causing double stretching. Check your DVD setup instructions and make sure its set to 16x9.
Lord Of The rings is a very wide movie regardless so you will still get black bars, even on a widescreen TV, but they should not be huge.
Yes, Lord of the Rings extended versions are formatted in true widescreen for standard TV's. Which is why the bars are so big on a 16:9 TV. The only way to combat this is to zoom which is what you are supposed to do when watching a standard widescreen movie on a 16:9 TV. I believe the regular versions of the movies are in anamorphic though if you want to see them look normal on your TV.
I think you misunderstand anamorphic. The Lord of the Rings extended DVDs are also anamorphic. Anamorphic does not mean that it is going to fill up your widescreen TV completely and get rid of the black bars. It means that "wasted" resolution that would normally go into encoding black bars is instead used as part of the picture. However, the picture ends up being squished. On 4x3 TVs, the DVD player is responsible for unsquishing the picture. On 16x9 TVs, the TV does the unsquishing. For really wide movies, what I believe your term "true" widescreen, such as Lord Of The Rings, the black bars still become part of the original encoded picture, but not as much as in a non-anamorphic transfer.
The purpose of anamorpic DVDs is not necessarily to get rid of the black bars and/or to fill up your Widescreen TV, but to give you higher resolutions.
BTW, there are various degrees of widescreen. Normal TV is at 4x3 or 1.33:1. Widescreen TVs and most widescreen movies are at 1.85:1, or 16x9. Really wide movies, such as Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars, are at 2:35:1. There are some movies that are even wider than that, such as Ben Hur, which was at 2.76:1. Thats why sometimes even though you have a widescreen TV, you still get black bars. Some movies are just wider than your widescreen TV.
For this reason I would NEVER zoom in on an Anamorphic widescreen movie, regardless if they have black bars or not. All you are doing is either chopping off part of the side of the picture or distoring the picture. I'd rather view the movie the way it was supposed to be and have black bars rather than butcher it by either cutting off the sides or distorting the picture. As long as you have your DVD player set to the correct television type, you should not need to use the zoom button on your TV.
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^^ You're right... not to mention I looked at work today just to double check and I am pretty sure that both versions of LOTR are the same. I thought the normal versions were different.
