I hate letterboxed wide screen DVDs !!!

[Jerrinfla]

Why do they bother doing that?
I much prefer wide screen DVDs because I have a wide screen tv, but I'd rather watch a 4:3 DVD than a letterboxed wide screen version with huge black bars on all 4 sides.
Zooming the height up to fill the screen wrecks havoc on the image quality.
I watched Goodfellas last night. The DVD looked like a poor quality VHS tape if I zoomed it up enough to fill the screen. (Not all that much better without zooming it, either!). It would have been more enjoyable to watch if it was a 4:3 version.
Along the same lines, I see a lot of HDTV being broadcast the same way - info says 16:9, but it's letterboxed. And you can't even TRY to zoom it. It zooms in. but stays in between the gray bars on each side of the image, and the top and bottom sides have black bars.
Thanks for let4ting me rant!

[blutach]

Are you saying you hate 4:3 hard matte? If so, you can convert these into full widescreen anamorphic DVDs with DVD Rebuilder.

Regards

[dazuk1972]

Why do they bother doing that?
I much prefer wide screen DVDs because I have a wide screen tv, but I'd rather watch a 4:3 DVD than a letterboxed wide screen version with huge black bars on all 4 sides.
Zooming the height up to fill the screen wrecks havoc on the image quality.
I watched Goodfellas last night. The DVD looked like a poor quality VHS tape if I zoomed it up enough to fill the screen. (Not all that much better without zooming it, either!). It would have been more enjoyable to watch if it was a 4:3 version.
Along the same lines, I see a lot of HDTV being broadcast the same way - info says 16:9, but it's letterboxed. And you can't even TRY to zoom it. It zooms in. but stays in between the gray bars on each side of the image, and the top and bottom sides have black bars.
Thanks for let4ting me rant!

You're not meant to use Zoom with your DVD player you're meant to adjust the screen format with your wide screen TV. Some people use the Zoom mode for that or the 16:9. When you want to watch something in the full frame again you press the same button on your TV remote until it's on the full frame mode mostly named as Normal. Zooming with the DVD player will damage the picture quality because remember, every image in a DVD film as in a frame of film are thousands of digital images. If you enlarge a digital photo in your PC you'll get bad quality because you're enlarging all those tiny squares that form the photo and that's what you're doing with your DVDs. Do you know, you watch twenty-five frames per second in a film? When you adjust the screen setting in your wide screen TV, you'll still have perfect picture.

Also remember, some films like Goodfellas were made in the 1:85 ratio and that's the same size screen as a wide screen TV that means you won't see a black bar at the top and bottom, however, other films like Jaws for example were made in the 2:35 ratio and there will still be a black bar at the top and bottom. This is because the 2:35 ration wide screen is narrower as in wider. Wide screen TVs couldn't be made to hide the black bars for all wide screen films because there's a number of wide screen formats.

Darren.

[Kabuchan]

I don't have a widescreen tv, but is there a way to make the movie into a full screen with DVD Rebuilder? That would be cool!

[Jerrinfla]

Blutach, correct me if I'm wrong, please. It doesn't seem to me that since they threw out so many lines of actual picture resolution on the DVD to insert the black bars into the 4:3 frame, that doing what is in essence cropping the image would not improve it. Does DVD Rebuilder do something to process the image so it looks better as well as cropping it? Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Dazuk, I prefer viewing the movies as they are formatted. I don't zoom 4:3 content or 2:35 content.
Not sure I explained my rant well enough, but here's what I find absurd with the copy of Goodfellas I rented.
The image on the screen is a 1.85 frame inserted inside a 4:3 frame.
So if you are viewing on a 4:3 screen, you have black bars on the top and the bottom. As you would if it was not a hard matte letterbox, but a regular anamorphic wide screen format. So if you don't zoom the image, you're seeing all the resolution available from the DVD without zooming at all, right?
Whereas when you are viewing on a 16:9 screen, the full widescreen image is inserted inside a 4:3 frame regardless of whether your tv is set to display 4:3 or 16:9. In other words, you have very thick black bars on all 4 sides of the image unless you zoom it, giving you a much smaller screen to view the movie on then otherwise.

[photo_angel2004]

I don't have a widescreen tv, but is there a way to make the movie into a full screen with DVD Rebuilder? That would be cool!

There are ways to convert WS to standard I am not sure if you can do that with DVD rebuilder though.

[dazuk1972]

I don't have a widescreen tv, but is there a way to make the movie into a full screen with DVD Rebuilder? That would be cool!

Sorry, I thought you said you have a wide screen TV.

You can't turn a wide screen version into a viewable full-framed version. It can be done in a PC but you won't be able to watch a film properly. For example, if you have a film in the 2:35 ratio and there's two people on the screen where there's one on the left-hand side and another on the right-hand side and you have the DVD set on the full frame, you'll only see the background of the scene on your screen with half of the two actors missing on the screen.

I can't remember the name of this machine but it's used to turn wide screen films to the full frame. All it is, is a machine that copies wide screen films to the full frame. The machine has a wide screen monitor, a console and a joystick. On the wide screen monitor, there's a square that can be panned to the left and to the right by the joystick and what's inside that square is what appears on a full-framed TV screen. You can't really do this yourself when watching a DVD in your PC because you'll need to know all your DVD like the back of your hand from word-by-word and scene-by-scene to know when to move your mouse to see what you want to see. It can't be done in a DVD player to my knowledge unless the left and right buttons on your remote will allow it on the Zoom mode but that's pointless because you'll ruin the picture quality again. You can't enjoy a film messing about with a mouse or a remote through-out each film. You're best bet is to buy a wide screen TV. Some DVDs do have the full-framed version on the other side of the disc but not many titles are available like that. Warner Bros mostly do that.

Darren.

[Kabuchan]

A belated thanks, dazuk1972!

I'm not ready to buy a widescreen yet. I have a 12 yr old Trinitron that works perfectly. I'll just deal with it!

[dazuk1972]

A belated thanks, dazuk1972!

I'm not ready to buy a widescreen yet. I have a 12 yr old Trinitron that works perfectly. I'll just deal with it!

Sorry to hear that. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad your long-lasting TV is working OK, though. What I meant earlier was, a wide screen TV is really something great. I'm planning on getting a video projector soon that will be breathtaking but the only problem is, I have to wait until it's dark everyday to use it. I heard they can be used during the daytime with a special projection but I don't know for sure. A projector is a projector to me.

I hope your problem gets sorted.

Darren.

[LT. Columbo]

A belated thanks, dazuk1972!

I'm not ready to buy a widescreen yet. I have a 12 yr old Trinitron that works perfectly. I'll just deal with it!

i still got a 1980 daewoo, and a black and white!

[Kabuchan]

What I meant earlier was, a wide screen TV is really something great. Darren.

I guess if you haven't really watched one, then you're not missing it. I'll have to keep out of Best Buy Thanks!

@ LT-does it have dials with little buttons to change the channel?

[katzdvd]

@ LT-does it have dials with little buttons to change the channel?

Rabbit ears, too!

[LT. Columbo]

it has dials, the other is hi-tech. it has push-buttons. but last year i leapt into the hi-tech world and bought a massive 20" from walmart for 99 smackaroonies. even has a remote!

i stored the rabbit ears since i have cable.

[Kabuchan]

I remember my parents had a console TV with a record player on top. We were the talk of the town when dad bought this switch on a 10 ft cord to turn the tv on and off!

[RFBurns]

I remember my parents had a console TV with a record player on top. We were the talk of the town when dad bought this switch on a 10 ft cord to turn the tv on and off!

My folks still have their Emerson console unit. It sports a 16-78 speed turntable on one side, am/fm reciever/amp on the other side, and a 25 inch b/w television in the center. Has 8" woofers and 3" mid-range and 2" tweeters on each side, and get this.....it was one of the very first wired remote control units! Everything still functions on it...mostly due to my ability to fix things!

About 7 years ago, I swapped out the old tv chassis, which btw was tube based, and the pic tube with a color tube and chassis. They still use it in the master den.

Yep...sometimes just because its old and still working..doesnt mean it should be thrown away.