Black bars on Blu-Ray Movies?

[Dark Prince]

So, I'm playing blu-ray movies on my ps3 lately and the past couple of ones (Untraceable and Pirates 3) have seen those black bars on the top and bottom of the screen on my HDTV.

Now, I thought the movies were supposed to take over the entire HD screen and not part of it.

Does anyone know how I can get rid of those black bars so the movie can play at its true visibility?

[pheriannath]

You can't. Widescreen films are shot in one of a couple aspect ratios: 1.85:1 and 2.35:1. The former roughly equates to your standard 16:9 widescreen television, and the other is wider, so you'll still see the bars.

Try messing with your HDTV's zoom settings if you want to get rid of 'em, but you'll lose some width in the process.

[DangerousDaze]

It's the aspect ratio. Your TV is 16:9 widescreen but those movies are shot in aspect ratios of 2.35:1 so you will always see the letter box. There's nothing wrong with that picture. ;)

/edit - yeah, what he said. :p

[Dark Prince]

Yea, there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

So, I suppose then its all about how the movie was shot and I assume its not going to be like that for all movies then?

[pheriannath]

You are correct. Most movies will fill the screen, though more "epic" movies will use the wider apect ratio.

[GigaFuzz]

Yea, there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

So, I suppose then its all about how the movie was shot and I assume its not going to be like that for all movies then?

Not all, but most big movies will indeed give you black bars.

[Inspector Fowler]

Iron Man does the same thing.

My screen is pretty small to begin with, so it's a little irritating to me, but not terrible.

[TheKeck]

As others have alluded to, tvs have different view settings. My tv has a view option called "Zoom", that will either eliminate or reduce the cropping, depending on the original aspect ratio.

[DangerousDaze]

TVs usually have a zoom mode where you can sacrifice the left and right edges of the picture in order to "blow it up" to fill up the screen, but if you do that with an HD source you're bound to lose quality so my advice would be to just put up with it or get a bigger TV. ;)

/edit - FFS that's the second time someone's taken the words out of my mouth in the same thread! :p

[biosc1]

Hehe...just don't watch a movie like Ben Hur with it's aspect ration of 2.76:1, that's one "skinny" movie.

Basically, as everyone else has said. If you go to a movie theatre, you can usually tell by the aspect ration of the movie by how far they withdraw the curtains on either side. Digital movies, like Wall-E, you'll notice that the curtains don't get withdrawn all the way.

It's all up to the director in the end though. Being a huge fan of wide screen movies, I would much rather have the black bar than lose out on anything that is going on in the periphery.

[Bingley Joe]

As others have alluded to, tvs have different view settings. My tv has a view option called "Zoom", that will either eliminate or reduce the cropping, depending on the original aspect ratio.

Sorry -- not to be an ass, but I feel the need to correct this.

The black bars (aka 'letterboxing') the OP is referring to means that there is no cropping going on with the picture.

The 'Zoom' feature you mention will actually add cropping to the sides of the picture in order to reduce or eliminate the letterboxing. The only other thing it can do is stretch the picture vertically in order to fill the top and bottom of the screen. Neither situation is optimal.

Best idea is to simply try to forget they are there and enjoy the film the way the cinematographer intended.

[Dark Prince]

Hmm, this is what I have to do I suppose.

The bars don't bother me that much, I was just curious if they were able to be removed at all without reducing quality or cropping.

Still loving the wide screen goodness though.

[maharahaj]

Whats nice though is that all high def gaming and high def television broadcasts follow the standard 16:9 ratio which will fill your entire screen accordingly. Like everyone else mentioned, when it comes to movies, your stuck with the aspect ratio the director chose to release the film at.

[TheKeck]

Sorry -- not to be an ass, but I feel the need to correct this.

The black bars (aka 'letterboxing') the OP is referring to means that there is no cropping going on with the picture.

The 'Zoom' feature you mention will actually add cropping to the sides of the picture in order to reduce or eliminate the letterboxing. The only other thing it can do is stretch the picture vertically in order to fill the top and bottom of the screen. Neither situation is optimal.

Best idea is to simply try to forget they are there and enjoy the film the way the cinematographer intended.
I actually have to agree to disagree. Although, perhaps my use of the word cropping was inappropriate. I completely understand how letterboxing works. The problem is, movies are letterboxed for 4:3 aspect ratio. So, if I have my tv in stretched mode, the image will be stretched horizontally. Zoom mode, DOES in fact, just stretch it vertically, restoring the proper widescreen aspect ratio.

[TheKeck]

Just to beat a dead horse, I double checked yesterday, and "zoom" view definitely doesn't stretch the image horizontally at all. In other words, I was exactly correct before. :p

[muddi900]

Has anyone ever seen a 1.6:1 movie? The only movie I saw was North by North-west. Its a wierd AR, yet almost all widescreen monitors follow it? Why is that?

[Bingley Joe]

Just to beat a dead horse, I double checked yesterday, and "zoom" view definitely doesn't stretch the image horizontally at all. In other words, I was exactly correct before. :p


I guess it's really just a question of semantics and features then, since my TV has both a "Zoom" mode, and a "Fill" mode..

"Zoom" mode fills the screen with picture information by 'zooming' in to the centre of the image until it fills the screen vertically -- the result is that the sides get cut off, but the original pixel aspect ratio is preserved (ie: no unnatural stretching of elements)

"Fill" mode fills the screen with picture information by simply stretching the image vertically until the letterboxing is gone. This maintains the entire original composition of the image, but at the expense of stretching it out, which can really look awful depending on what the image contains.


What I was really intending to point out in my initial post though is that letterboxed content, when viewed normally on any type of screen - be it 4:3 or 16:9 - is not cropped.

What you're looking at is the full-frame, original picture, as intended to be seen by the filmmakers. It was really just that I didn't want anyone to be confused by the term 'cropping' as you used it.. but I think you got that already :)

[TheKeck]

Yeah, my use of cropping was wrong. You are right about that.

My zoom mode appears to be different from both of your modes, though. It just adjusts the vertical to change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to whatever my tv is supposed to be. In other words, if the ratio of the movie in question is the same as my tv, it will end up filling the whole screen. If the ratio of the movie is MORE oblong than my tv, I will still have some letterboxing, but use as much screen real estate as possible. If the ratio of the movie is 4:3, it will cut of the top and bottom of the movie. (NOT a good option, that one. ;))