BluRay Playback at 1080p

dante6491 · 22 Aug 2009 at 01:09

Hi there. I recently purchased an LG Bluray drive which comes with Powerdvd 7.3. My problem is that I cannot play BluRay dvd's at 1080p. They seem to go to a smaller resolution which leaves even larger letterbox than there should be. I was wondering if anyone had similar experiences and if so, how did they get it to work properly.

Cheers, Dante

chronic86 · 22 Aug 2009 at 01:22

try using vlc player not sure if it supoort it like... but i allways use it to change aspect ratio to suite my monitor... 16:10 which takes away the letetrbox!

dante6491 · 22 Aug 2009 at 01:31

Just tried VLC, it does not work.

ultim · 22 Aug 2009 at 09:20

VLC do not support blu ray playback.

Try updating your graphics drivers and downloading the trial version of powerdvd 9. See if it makes a difference

chaosophy · 22 Aug 2009 at 09:34

Run their system checker thingy, to see if their software thinks your PC has all the necessary bits to be fully BluRay compliant.

iirc it will run at a reduced res if it thinks your display(s) aren't HDCP.

tbh after a year of messing around with my LG drive and getting mightily annoyed with PowerDVD I ended up going out and buying a stand alone player.

robinbredin · 22 Aug 2009 at 09:37

Also make sure your monitor or tv can play back at 1080p. My monitor can only only play back at 720p, where my television plays back at 1080p.

cokecan · 22 Aug 2009 at 10:51

what BD's are you trying to play? and are you aware that most films wont be 16:9 format (i.e. you'll get black bars at the top and bottom of most 1080p films)

Barlick · 22 Aug 2009 at 12:13

I also use an LG Blu-Ray player and PowerDVD 7.3. Someone else on the forum suggested that if you run PowerDVD in Admin mode, blu-ray disks play.

dante6491 · 22 Aug 2009 at 12:26

robinbredin said:
Also make sure your monitor or tv can play back at 1080p. My monitor can only only play back at 720p, where my television plays back at 1080p.

My monitor is a Samsung 2443BW which is 1920x1200 but I can manually set it to 1080p. Potentially could it be that because I am not using HDCP out from the 4870 it is not working? Are there such things as HDCP to DVI cables?

cokecan72 said:
what BD's are you trying to play? and are you aware that most films wont be 16:9 format (i.e. you'll get black bars at the top and bottom of most 1080p films)

The only Bluray that works properly for me is Equilbrium which is either 1090p for 480p. last night was when I got fed up with it when I was watching the Dark Knight and for some scenes it filled the entire monitor (1920x1200) then for others it switched to either 2.4:1 or 1.78:1.

alex24 · 22 Aug 2009 at 12:35

You're confusing HDCP and HDMI. HDCP is content protection, HDMI is the connector. If you're connecting DVI to DVI you should be ok. You can check the HDCP status in the gfx card drivers usually.

The dark knight was filmed in different aspects for imax scenes I think (mainly the action ones), so you get bigger black bars on those. it's perfectly normal for that blu-ray. Try another movie perhaps. Also, for blu-ray playback, PDVD9 is better, though it won't support HD-DVD if you have any of those and a combo drive.

Meatball · 22 Aug 2009 at 12:35

dante6491 said:
My monitor is a Samsung 2443BW which is 1920x1200 but I can manually set it to 1080p. Potentially could it be that because I am not using HDCP out from the 4870 it is not working? Are there such things as HDCP to DVI cables?

Your monitor is 16:10, Blu-rays are encoded in the 16:9 format. So even if a film filled the full 1920x1080 frame there will be black bars on your monitor. However as previously mentioned most films have a wider aspect ratio, eg. 1920x960 etc. So with most films you will have large black bars. HDCP works over HDMI and DVI, they are same connection apart from HDMI carries audio signals as well. However, I believe both your monitor and G.Card ARE HDCP compatible.

Dante6491 said:
when I was watching the Dark Knight and for some scenes it filled the entire monitor (1920x1200) then for others it switched to either 2.4:1 or 1.78:1.

The Dark Knight is unique because it's aspect ratio changes during the film. Some scenes were filmed on IMAX film, those scenes fill the full 1920X1080 where as 90% of The Dark Knight is filmed on standard film in a wider aspect ratio, leaving you with black borders. Even so, the IMAX scenes should not fill your screen. There should be black borders when playing back IMAX scenes of The Dark Knight (which fill the full 1920x1080p Blu-Ray res) so PowerDVD is obviously cropping either side of the video to fill your 1920x1200 monitor

dante6491 · 22 Aug 2009 at 13:58

Meatball said:
Your monitor is 16:10, Blu-rays are encoded in the 16:9 format. So even if a film filled the full 1920x1080 frame there will be black bars on your monitor. However as previously mentioned most films have a wider aspect ratio, eg. 1920x960 etc. So with most films you will have large black bars. HDCP works over HDMI and DVI, they are same connection apart from HDMI carries audio signals as well. However, I believe both your monitor and G.Card ARE HDCP compatible.

I know there will be black bars across the screen, its just they should only be 60 pixels high a piece. What I am getting are closer to 150 at a guess.

cokecan · 22 Aug 2009 at 14:28

is the width of the film filling your screen? if it is then I would say theres nothing wrong with whats being displayed and it is just that the film(s) are in a different aspect ratio to most?

Sirrel Squirrel · 22 Aug 2009 at 16:28

dante6491 said:
I know there will be black bars across the screen, its just they should only be 60 pixels high a piece. What I am getting are closer to 150 at a guess.

If the aspect ratio of the film is 1.78:1, you will have 60px black bars at the top and bottom of your 1920x1200 screen, since 1.78:1 is 1920x1080 in HD.

If the film has an aspect of 2.40:1 you will have 200px black bars at the top and bottom since 2.40:1 although carried in a 1920x1080 stream is effectively only 1920x800.

asim18 · 22 Aug 2009 at 17:12

I don't see why you have noticed this now.

Movies have had ultra-wide aspect ratios since they bagan. There is nothing wrong with your computer. There is nothing you can do about it.

Flibster · 22 Aug 2009 at 18:50

alexhull24 said:
Also, for blu-ray playback, PDVD9 is better, though it won't support HD-DVD if you have any of those and a combo drive.

If you can get it to run. There is a lot of people who have it crash either when they load it or when trying to play something. Even Powerdvd8 with the later patches is a pain in the bum to get running.