About DVD resolution

[luctmrc]

If MPEG2 can't support any resolution above 720x480 doesn't that mean that widescreen format DVDs (16:9) are inferior to fullscreen DVDs (4:3)? If a widescreen movie is confined to 720 pixels in width then in order for it to be kept in the 16:9 aspect ratio the height will have to be less than 480 pixels (somewhere around 400 or 408 is my guess) which would mean that widescreen TVs stretch out the actual picture contained in the DVD to fit the TV screen, thus giving you inferior quality. Is this true? Somebody please tell me it isn't. (And IF it isn't what is the secret REAL resolution of widescreen?)

[GeneralLeoFF]

it all depends on how you look at it. 720x480 is just the endocded reselution of the movie. the actual playback reselution differs. 720x480 is nether 4:3 or 16:9 realy. 4:3 DVDs will realy play back at 640x480 and 16:9 DVD will realy play back at 852x480. The horazantal reselution is far less important then the vertical reselution but a higher horizantal reselution does help.

Thers 3 main types of DVDs:

4:3 full-frame: This Uses the full 480 lines of reselution however depending on how the movie was shot you can lose as much as 50% of the movie. This method is all a mater of opinion. some people prefer to watch movies full screen and others prefer widescreen. Widescreen is most likley the way the movie was originaly shot and intended to be viewed however.

4:3 letterboxed: This is the worse possable way to do a DVD. This is a 4:3 DVD that just uses black borders to maintain the movies original theatrical aspect ratio. It cuts off much of the vertical reselution to do so.

16:9 anamorphic: This is the best way to handle a DVD. The movie is acctualy encoded on the disc in a squeezed form. If you where to play the movie in it's native reselution without anamorphicly adjusting it the actors will apear tall and thin. The quality on an anamorphic DVD can go both ways depending on the aspect ratio of the desplay devise.

If you play a 16:9 anamorphic DVD on a 4:3 TV then it will squeze the move vertiavly until it is the corect aspect ratio. This will like 4:3 letterboxed, dramaticly cut into the vertical reselution and again depending on how it is shot it can use as little as 360 vertical lines.It will add black borders to the image as needed (acctualy there just un used pixles that thew TV just ignores so there black).

If you play a 16:9 anamorphic disc on a widescreen 16:9 TV it is stretched horazantaly until it is the corect aspect ratio. If the movie was shot in a true 16:9 aspect ratio this will use the full 480 lines and fill the full screen on a widescreen TV. However no movies are ever shot in 16:9 (1.78:1). The most common aspect ratio you will find is 1.85:1 and then 2.35:1. 1.85:1 is realy extreamly close to 1.78:1 so there is very little black borders on the widescreen TV. 2.35:1 is a more extream aspect ratio so there is more black border then 1.85:1 even on a widescreen TV. However these black borders are FAR less then anything 4:3 letterboxing will have.

[luctmrc]

Wow, this REALLY helps! Thanks a lot!