Stupid question

Mr Doovde

Mr Doovde

Mr Doovde

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Please bear in mnd that I'm a complete beginner with computer hardware, but have slowly been trying to learn. I've just purchased a new 24" 1920 x 1200 monitor, and I've been told that there will be thin black border line when watching certain films. I've tried different aspect rations on different DVDs, though I really don't know what they refer to. :o :)

They include 16:9 (although I do know that one lol), 1:85:1, 2.40:1 etc. I'm using old PowerDVD 6 t o run the DVDs. In all cases the horizontal black borders measure just over two inches :eek:. In Windows media player they were even worse with vertical borders as well. Is this standard or should they be much thinner? Or am I being stupid? I hope it's the latter. :D because I find that size border to be really intrusive.

If there is a problem, is it my software, or my graphics card. It's an Ati x700 Pro PCI Express card (if that's any help)?
 
The reason you have vertical borders in WMP is because it often struggles to detect that your monitor is 16:9 (or more) and so plays the DVD in 4:3 letterbox mode. I would advise against using WMP for watching DVDs.

As for horizontal black bars...most films are 2.35-2.40:1. Watching these on any monitor that does not have this wide an aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3, 5:4 and 16:10 included) will have black bars because that's the only way to show the whole frame without aspect ratio stretching.

However, some films and most TV shows are 16:9 (1.78:1) or 1.85:1. On a 16:9 monitor, these videos will have no (or tiny) black bars. On a 16:10 monitor, you will get small black bars (in the case of 1920x1200, you'll get an 120 vertical pixels worth of black bars because the video will be shown in 1920x1080, which is 16:9).

The only way to get rid of the black bars and retain the video's aspect ratio is to cut off the sides of the video (known as pan & scan or simply zoom in most media players). If black bars really bother you that much, try these options. Personally, I want to see the whole frame as the director intended and black bars do not bother me in the slightest - I fail to see why anyone can be bothered by black bars and not by the surroundings of the monitor in the room (e.g. the monitor's bezel, a lamp in the background, the white wall, etc.). If you're watching in dark room then it's even more silly to be bothered by them.

There are many websites with information about aspect ratios including example images. Here's two:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/764
http://widescreen.org/examples.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)
 
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Thanks again DragonQ, you've been very helpful.

I tried Heat which states that it has a 1:85:1 aspect ratio (which should be fine). In the menu section screen the black borders were nice and thin (three quarters of an inch), but during the film each border measured two inches :confused:

However, I whacked on Back the Future with exactly the same aspect ratio of 1:85:1, but during the menu screen and in film, each border was only three quarters of an inch, which was much more acceptable, but confusing. :)

Is there any reason for the differences, considering they are the same aspect ratio?
 
It is possible "Heat" is actually 2.35:1 and the packaging is wrong. Sometimes they state things like "16:9 anamorphic" or "optimised for 16:9 televisions" but the actual films are not 16:9. Assuming this is the film you're talking about then its aspect ratio is indeed 2.35:1 so the DVD is almost certainly faithful to that aspect ratio. This would explain the larger black bars.

The other possibility is that the video is being vertically squashed for some reason but then if the other DVD works fine in the same program then that's unlikely. A photo would help determine what's going on more easily...
 
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