Posted by John Howells on 12/26/05 15:56

"Bob" <spam@uce.gov> wrote

> On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 15:11:20 GMT, "Large Farva" <none@nospam.com>
> wrote:
>
> >'Full screen' hacks off the sides of the movie to fit it on a square
screen so you
> >miss 2/3 of the picture.
>
> Good Grief! That much?

Not quite. For a 1.85:1 film you lose about 28% (1.33 / 1.85) and for a
2.35:1 film about 44% (1.33 / 2.35)

> What does anamorphic mean in terms of size and shape?

It means that on the disk the film is 33% taller than it would be if not
anamorphic, so the "raw" image has people tall and thin. On playback for a
4:3 TV the player squashes the picture to 75% of its height to compensate
(1.33 * .75 = 1) and adds the black bars. On a WS TV the "raw" image is
expanded horizontally to the full width of the screen (16/9 / 4/3 = 1.33) so
the picture appears normal, but without such wide black bars.

John Howells

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