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Posted by Bill's News on 05/09/06 16:08
pokee@shaw.ca wrote:
> I recently bought 16x9 widescreen TV. I have a little over 100
> "Widescreen/Letterbox" DVDs. Most of them look awesome on my TV
> (either anamorphic or enhanced for 16x9 TVs), but....about 45 of
> them
> do not mention "Anamorphic" or "Enhanced for 16x9 TVs" on the
> package
> description.
>
> For example, I have Armaggeddon Criterion collection, Lost in
> Space,
> the Abyss Special Edition, Godzilla (Emmerich version), Close
> Encounters, Spiderman (Toby Maguire), Starship Troopers, The Thing
> (Kurt Russell), Stargate, Something About Mary - to name several.
> They all just say "Widescreen" or "Letterbox". I could go through
> and check them all on my TV, but it would take a while. I already
> checked a few of them to discover they are not formatted properly,
> so
> I fear it's the same for the rest of these. Can anyone confirm?
>
> The DVDs I did check that aren't described as "anamorphic" all look
> horrible on my 16x9 TV (in 4:3 mode, it's a small letterbox within
> the
> 4:3 frame AND in 16:9 the image is stretched out horizontally with
> the
> black bars on top and bottom).
>
> I don't have a zoom mode (bare bones 16x9 TV, so I only have two
> viewing modes - 4:3 & 16:9), so I don't have the choice to zoom in.
> Is this a viable option for most people when watching Widescreen
> DVDs
> that aren't formatted for 16x9 TVs?
>
> Thanks,
> Paula
I discovered the same with some of my older DVDs (only "The Abyss" is
among titles you've mentioned). The DVD player, a Buffalo LT, plays
DVDs and MPEGISO files. Oddly its zoom is different depending upon
the source. For letter-boxed DVDs it zooms within the 640x480 frame?
(how stupid is this? And how stupid am I for not knowing that in
advance?) Since the mfgr does update its firmware, perhaps they'll
address this stupidity in the near future - but it may not be an
upgradeable option.
The HD monitor (1920x1080p) has a VGA input among its several source
connections and my laptop has a dual monitor ATI mobility 9500 video
card. When I connect the laptop's VGA out to the monitor and use the
VLC player, these DVDs are displayed exactly as I would want them to
be by using VLC's 16:9 crop. BTW, I found no similar display option
in PowerDVD or WinDVD.
The monitor also has "standard" and "fill" display modes, but "fill"
is really "stretch" and who in their right mind would watch anything
that way?
An added benefit of this connection I'd not anticipated is that the
42" monitor displays anything from the laptop quite readably at
armchair distance. A wireless mouse (so far keyboarding unnecessary
after start-up) converts the laptop into a first class DVD/MPEG
networked player, far superior to the stand-alone products. I've just
ordered an ATI 95x0 card with DVI/VGA dual monitors for the tower
nearest the monitor to make this setup permanent.
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