DVD's and their screen formatting

FrankJH

FrankJH

FrankJH

Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2005
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Now maybe I am crazy or imagining things I just wanted anyone's opinion:

As far as I understood it, the TV manufacturers originally sold us widescreen tv's on the proviso that not only where hollywood films formatted in this way (16:9 dimensions) but its a more "natural" human point of view.

I also believe original widescreen dvd's where also in 16:9 ratio ( I would guess to keep the original director's choice)

So how come my widescreen dvd's are all now 2.35:1 ( 21.15:9) ie they all look as bad on a widscreen set as a widescrren movie on a 4:3 set???

I have a relatively large collection of dvd's ( guestimate is approaching 100 movies and several series) and most of them are 2.35:1 - now who are at fault hollywood for changing or the dvd companies for not formatting for widescreen sets.

Even tv's that can change / stretch the picture you either still have black borders of various sizes or you get the picture edges disected.

Now you can understand it happening on 4:3 sets, as the cinema screen isnt that shape - so its natural this would happen on a "widescreen" presentation.

Any likelyhood of us being asked to fork out again for 2.35:1 aspect tv's ?

Widescreen monitors I believe are an even worse case in point as I believe they are actually usually 16:10 ( 23.50:10) ie you would miss out even more of each frame at the side if the whole height of the monitor is used!!!

If I am wrong please tell me, but I believe this to be the case.

I am really interested to hear everyone's views
 
16x9 is used by a lot of films, the big budget spectical ones tend to use 2.35:1 to give a grander scale to the film
The choice of the aspect ration a film is shot in is down to the director, 16x9 was chosen for TVs as it was the best compromise. It's never really bothered me to be honest as i tend to watch my TV with the lights turned down so don't notice the bars after 5 mins.
 
If the film is created in a wider aspect ratio to the TV - which it is - what else is to be done? Look at the screen while watching something large-budget in the cinema and you'll see. I don't see why it's a problem - if the TV were wider than 16:9 then watching 4:3 pictures would start getting ridiculous.
 
Sorry I was under the impression that all dvd's started coming out as 16:9 ratio ( which fit perfectly), but all the ones I have recently bought are all 2.35 ( which look to me to have the same sized black bars on a widescreen as 16:9 films do on 4:3 sets)

I just think it seems as though once homes have got comfy with widescreen tv's, hollywood decided to change again so us with w/s sets are back to square one (after outlaying cash to try and keep up)

Just my opinion
 
At the end of the day do you want a cropped image or an image as the film was intended and shown at cinemas?

The DVD manufacturers obviously decided the latter, I assume there would have been some sort of market research involved.
 
Thank you Matt

"After the introduction of anamorphic systems such as CinemaScope, the standard academy ratio of 1.37:1 was widened. This was simply a matter of masking the top and bottom of a standard academy frame to produce a ratio of 1.85:1 called Widescreen. It is the standard screen format used in cinemas today."

I didnt think I was going mad (1.85:1 is nigh on 16:9)
 
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