Star Wars DVD - Widescreen

by **Tommy Boy** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:31 am

I have this set and when I finally went to watch the New Hope DVD last night, I was very disappointed. Not with the movie itself or the upgrades in sound and picture quality, but in the letterbox!

I have a 16:9 Samsung DLP (50") and a LG DVI DVD player. The quality is great but for some reason, I could not adjust my set to get rid of the letterbox effect and actually have it fill my screeen completely?

Any ideas as to how I can do this or will I be stuck watching the other with the letterbox?

by **JimmyTango** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:52 am

Is your DVD player set up as 16:9 or 4:3?

by **Tommy Boy** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:54 am

16:9

it is widescreen and fills the screen horizontally, just not vertically. I can zoom teh DVD player 400 or 1600 but all that does is cut off the left and right sides of the screen while it zooms...

How can I watch it without letterbox? the menu screen is "full screen" but the movie itself is letterbox.

by **JimmyTango** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:07 am

See if you can change the menu to letterbox, it should not say full screen.

by **Tommy Boy** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:15 am

I mean the DVD menu displays on my TV without the letterbox effect. It is only when the movie itself starts that the letterbox effect becomes apparent.

Do you know what I mean?

by **Sir Loin** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:19 am

No ...i dont know, but keep plugging away and im sure you will figure it out. May the force be with you.

by **Chacal** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:46 am

This is normal behavior. It's a widescreen edition. Same format as in the theater. There are only 3 ways you can view this on a TV screen:

1- Change nothing. The picture will be smaller in height but will fill the screen horizontally. No part of picture is lost, no distortion.

2- Expand vertically to full height while keeping the aspect ratio. The left and right sides of the picture will be lost. That's what they've been doing on TV from the start. No distortion.

3- Expand vertically while keeping same width. No part is lost but the picture is distorted, everything looks thinner and taller.

Other solutions (if you can afford the cost of the hardware and the divorce):

4- Buy a wide-screen TV

5- Buy a LCD projector

by **yaDad** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 12:00 pm

Cant believe im saying this...the sky might fall so watch your heads. :eek:

I think that JT has got the answer here. The TV has a setting on it for what aspect you gonna watch but the DVD player does also. Tommy theres a setting in your DVD player setup that is wrong and it is outputting the image wrong. DVD setup menu...not the menu on the DVD.

2¢

by **JimmyTango** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 12:17 pm

Chacal, he has a widescreen LCD. The problem I am seeing is either the TV or the DVD player is not set up for widescreen.

Do other movies work ok?

by **Major SONAR** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 12:38 pm

I think everyone is missing the picture...

DVD can be recorded in different modes. (Not 4:3 and 16:9)

Check out this link. I think it will explain it better than i can:
http://www.hifi-writer.com/he/anamorphic/anamorphic.htm

Here is a good link for general information.
http://pub1.ezboard.com/fdigitaltelevisionhdtvforumgeneralforum

Hope this helps.

by **Tommy Boy** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 1:40 pm

My question is does everyone see these movies in letterbox if you have the Widescreen edition?

If so, then that is fine...I will still keep playing with the DVD player menu settings (setup) but I have not been able to change it.

And from these posts, I think that the answer is that for my TV and DVD player, I can expect to see the letterbox UNLESS I can change a setting on my DVD player because everyone is seeing the same thing (letterbox)....is this right?

by **yaDad** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 1:46 pm

The movies have several different formats that they are recorded in....the way that the DVD player outputs this signal is the determining factor tho. DVD setup/config issue.

by **Tommy Boy** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 1:48 pm

Originally posted by Yadad
The movies have several different formats that they are recorded in....the way that the DVD player outputs this signal is the determining factor tho. DVD setup/config issue.

mine us currently set to upconvert to 1080i and maybe what I need to do is lower this? It would seem that the DVI connection does not require such a high upconversion...

I was just wondering if anyone else knew how to easily get rid of these letterboxes, or if it was even possible.

by **Buliwyf** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:29 pm

tommy, you want to actually GO to fullscreen? ewwwwwww

letterbox is where it's at man

by **Tommy Boy** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:56 pm

I am not doing a great job describing it I guess...what I want is for my entire 16:9 screen to be full with the picture...no bars at the bottom or the top.

I do not want full screen in the 4:3 way, but rather have my 16:9 screen completely covered with the 16:9 widescreen image...

Do you know what I mean?

I did not buy a 50" DLP to have full screen (in the 4:3) ratio!

Star Wars DVD - Widescreen

Star Wars DVD - Widescreen

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