Ultrawide Monitor for Watching 4k MKV Files

turok_t

turok_t

turok_t

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Hi everyone,

Just wanted to seek your humble advice as I am planning to get a new monitor. I'm planning to buy a new LG 38" 21:9 ultrawide monitor (38GN950) that has a resolution of 3840x1600. I will be using this for daily use, but a big part of it will be watching 4k movies/MKV files using VLC player. A lot of my movies are 2.40:1 aspect ratio. I just have a few questions if you don't mind:

1. If I watch these movies fullscreen using VLC player, will there be black bars on the side/top? Or will the movie fill up the entire screen for maximum immersion?
2. Will the movie look stretched in full screen?
3. Even though the resolution of 4k UHD movies does not match the native resolution of this monitor, how will the image look? Will it look similar to a 4k (3840 x 2160) native monitor?

Thanks for all your help!
 
2.4:1 is still slightly wider aspect ratio and will have tiny black bars on bottom and top, but will be shown "pixel perfect".

Again usual 16:9 and 1.85:1 films will be shown downscaled with notable black bars on sides, because of major amount inadequate vertical resolution.
Unless you want to view them horizontally stretched/vertically flattened, or cropped from bottom&top.

Here's what those aspect ratio contents would look on it and 32" 4K monitor. (forget resolution which I didn't bother to change)
https://tvcalculator.com/?{"a":1.78,"tvs":[[38,21,9,1920,1080,0],[32,16,9,1920,1080,0]]}
https://tvcalculator.com/?{"a":1.85,"tvs":[[38,21,9,1920,1080,0],[32,16,9,1920,1080,0]]}

For best versatility there's no other way than having good image height for consumed desk space...
 
I wouldnt buy that if you're going to be consuming 4k movie content. Get the LG CX or C1 48" models. Also look into a renderer called madvr you can get it with the klite codec pack full version, it's best you can get on pc and will play any hdr files correctly too.
 
Thanks for the link! I appreciate it EsaT. I just wanted to confirm, for movies that are naturally 2.4:1 aspect ratio, will they be MOSTLY pixel to pixel on a 21:9 ultrawide screen with no minimal bars? By pixel to pixel, i mean every pixel of the actually movie mapped into each pixel on the monitor. I do understand that the movie is slightly wider (2.4:1) compared to an ultrawide (3840x1600).

If you have a movie file that is 16:9 frame, with the movie itself at 21:9 aspect ratio, I am imagining that this movie will initially open up with a media player with black bars at the top and bottom on a 21:9 ultrawide. Does this mean that the movie is downscaled and not pixel to pixel if the file is 3840 pixels horizontal?

Once you zoom on the movie, does each pixel horizontally actually map to each pixel on the monitor?

My purpose is to view the movie as clearly as possible, without zooming or stretching to maintain its picture quality. If there are tiny black bars due to the difference in aspect ratio, I can live with that.
 
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turok_t said:
You can't see the black bars? they are even displayed on a 16:9 TV



Click to expand...


they are not IN your movie file though ? ?? You are watching a 2.35:1 file on a 16:9 screen. I think you are confused. The black bars are not IN your movie, they are caused by the literal Absence of movie data.

edit. Not sure what movie player you are using, but try to get the properties of the file, specifically the width and height of the video file in pixels.

If it's a HD movie, it will probably be 1920x818 pixels approximately. Note that this is NOT a 16:9 ratio.
 
Look, check this out. This is terminator dark date 4k UHD with a native aspect ratio of 2:39:1 that is shown on my 16:9 screen in VLC. Notice how the resolution is 3840x2160 which is a 16:9 ratio even though the actual movie itself is 21:9. Hence, the resolution of the file includes the black bars above/below.

 
turok_t said:
Look, check this out. This is terminator dark date 4k UHD with a native aspect ratio of 2:39:1 that is shown on my 16:9 screen in VLC. Notice how the resolution is 3840x2160 which is a 16:9 ratio even though the actual movie itself is 21:9. Hence, the resolution of the file includes the black bars above/below.

Click to expand...


wow OK. Not sure of your source for this file. i found a few that were cropped to e.g. 3840x 1604 but i think the original blu ray does have hard coded black bars.. , but in this case you can just tell VLC to crop and there would be no loss of quality on ultra widescreen monitor. But if quality is qhat you after VLC isn't the best. MPC with mad vr is usually better. and that will let you do the same thing
 
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