Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: DVD Anamorphic

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Posted by Larry Myers (Member # 738) on 12-26-2005, 07:45 PM:

Is the best setup for DVD to HDTV widescreen is to play the DVD in anamorphic through the DVD player and use the stretch in the HDTV to correct the image for widescreen?

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 12-26-2005, 08:08 PM:

Stretching or changing the picture in anyway via the TV is a bad idea. On the widescreen (2.35:1) dvds, your gonna have black bars on the top and bottom, learn to live with it. I dont know of a STRETCH for that, however, some people zoom in on the picture to fill up the screen...very bad. If your watching 4:3 material, your gonna have bars on the left and right of your picture, again, learn to live with it. Stretching the picture to fill up the screen gives you horrible and often goofy looking results. Keep the TV on normal (usually thats the setting) and don't touch it. Just my advice to you.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-26-2005, 08:28 PM:

Frank's advise is not necessarily good and some of it seems to be a misunderstanding.

If you indeed have a 16:9 set, then YES you should set your DVD player to 16:9 output. If the DVD in question is authored as "enhanced for 16:9" or "anamorphic widescreen" then it will come out of the DVD player at the full resolution of the DVD. Your TV will then need to expand the anamorphic image so that the proportions are proper.

In fact, using the 16:9 output of the DVD player even on a 4:3 set, if the set can squish the height vertically to have black bars top and bottom will again result in the best image.

I think what Frank was advising was AGAINST artificially expanding the image in the name of "filling the screen" regardless of how the image was formatted and if the proportions are then out of whack. In that respect we agree.

In general, with analog signals, you want to start with the highest resolution possible (for DVDs, that would be the anamorphic image for widescreen features) and keep that image at as high a resolution as possible with the least amount of processing.

For digital signals...I've found that the key is to keep it at the same resolution from beginning to end.

[ 12-26-2005, 10:17 PM: Message edited by: Steve Guttag ]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 12-26-2005, 11:40 PM:

I agree, scaling sucks ass.

Also 16:9 DVDs have a 16:9 flag that is embedded in the fantastic video signal. This flag will tell your TV to go into widescreen mode if you have your TV set up properly and if your TV doesn't suck. If your TV does suck, you'll need to manually stretch it. When the 16:9 flag is not present, it should snap back to 4:3 mode... if you have your TV set up to default to 4:3 like you should if the user doesn't suck. Another sign of a piece of crap TV is one that ALWAYS goes into 16:9 mode whenever a 480p (progressive) signal is present. Yet another sign your TV sucks is if it doesn't accept 720p. Still yet another sign of a suck TV is if the component inputs don't accept all resolutions, ie one input is for 1080i, 720p and 480p only (no 480i on that input), and another input is for 480i and 480p only or whatever. Lots of sucky TVs out there!

The 16:9 flag kicks ass. You can ILLEGALLY PIRATE an anamorphic DVD onto an evil videotape through either the S-video or composite outputs of the DVD player (or even the Green component video out as long as you disable progressive scan and don't mind black and white). Upon playing back the crappy VHS tape you made in EP, you'll notice that your TV still stretches to widescreen automatically! If the user AND his TV doesn't suck, that is.

Posted by Jim Henk (Member # 3628) on 02-25-2006, 02:44 AM:

Okay, stupid question for today: "Anamorphic DVD"

I always laughed when I heard that, as I can't imagine an actual anamorphic squeezed image being pressed to and then decoded and unsqueezed from the DVD. I always imagined that the image was always pretty much 4x3 with black bars printed top and bottom. Still preferable in keeping with the director's widescreen intentions, of course, but hardly the true meaning of anamorphic. Or so I thought.

This thread seems to say otherwise. Could you explain?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-25-2006, 09:13 AM:

Yep, you'd be wrong...

When a DVD says "Anamorphic Widescreen" or "Enhanced for 16:9"...then if you set your DVD player for 16:9 (in the set up menu of your DVD player where you tell it what type of TV/Monitor you are using, those DVDs so marked, will output an anamorphic image (tall and skinny) just like a scope frame of film.

It is then your TV/Monitor's job to stretch it out back to its 16:9 ratio since the DVD's image space is only 4:3. Alternatly, if you have a 4:3 monitor, then it is up to your monitor to squish the top/bottom to put in the letter box for a 16:9 final picture ratio.

In this manner, more image data is transfered to the TV/Monitor for a superior image...just like CinemaScope works for film.

If you merely set your DVD player for only 4:3 output and accept the letter box output of 16:9 material, then you are only looking a portion of the image in the 4:3 space rather than all of the information the recorded image has to offer.

Go ahead and try it...set you DVD player to 16:9 output and play a DVD marked as Enhanced for 16:9 or "Anamorphic Widescreen" and see what it looks like.

Posted by Larry Myers (Member # 738) on 02-25-2006, 09:47 AM:

That is right. You could watch the whole DVD in the anamorphic form if you wish. Although, the anamorphic image is not squeezed 2 to 1 as with film. It's more like 1.5 to 1 so it is watchable. It's just that everyone will have lost about 40 lbs.

With my setup, if it comes over to the set squeezed and I set the set to strech,I get a wide screen image. Actually I have three options. Standard, Zoom, and Stretch. Standard comes in at 4.3 full frame unsqueezed. I will need zoom if it comes in 4.3 unsqueezed with black bars on the top and bottom. Stretch is set if the image comes in the full 4.3 but is squeezed 1.5 to 1 for a 1.85 full image using a 16.9 set. If the squeezed image comes in with black bars on top and bottom then I get a 2.35 full wide screen with the TV set at stretch. Again this is all on a 16.9 widescreen HDTV set.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-25-2006, 12:40 PM:

It is actually closer to 1.33X. In fact, that is a bit of a golden anamorphic. It will take a 4:3 and make it into a 16:9. If applied to 16:9 but in reverse it will make it 4:3. The really cool thing is that it will take a 16:9 image and make it 2.35 (aka scope). Thus one lens with a 16:9 projector can have the entire imager used for 4:3, 16:9 or 2.35.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-25-2006, 11:36 PM:

The anamorphic aspect of DVD has led to some really odd (or to be honest extremely stupid) occurences of DVD playback at electronic stores.

I'm not kidding, I have seen -side by side- two different TV sets doing silly things. One set would be a normal 4:3 ratio monitor playing a 2.35:1 DVD, such as Moulin Rouge with the 16:9 output from the DVD player turned on to make the black bars small as possible. And then a widescreen Digital TV right text to it would be showing standard NTSC broadcasts or foolscreen DVDs stretched to fat mode.
[Roll Eyes]

Great way to sell televisions to the public. Some of those guys need the taste slapped out of their mouths.
[thumbsup]

Posted by Jim Henk (Member # 3628) on 02-26-2006, 03:43 AM:

quote: Steve Guttag
Go ahead and try it...set you DVD player to 16:9 output and play a DVD marked as Enhanced for 16:9 or "Anamorphic Widescreen" and see what it looks like.

Well hot dang. My faith in the mystery of life is restored.