DVD Aspect Ratio Question.

[RiderFan]

I have a 50 inch Sasmsung DLP widescreen projection television.

Does anyone know why some widescreen eddition DVD's fit correctly on my screen (movie takes up the whole screen) while other widescreen eddition DVD's still have the black bars on the top and bottom?

It is driving me crazy.

I am connected via a DVI cable.

[dlandrum]

Are you letting BM determine the size (auto) or are you set to 16:9?

[nanook105]

I've found that auto does not always work, and that I need to go into options and manually select the correct aspect ratio.

[RiderFan]

Yes, I've tried them all, 4-3, 16-9, auto. The thing is, that some DVD's look perfect, while some show the bars, regardless of the settings. I could understand it if they all looked the same way, but when some are perfect, and others show the bars, I was just wondering if anyone knew why?

[merrypig]

There is more than one "widescreen" aspect ratio btw.

Check the aspect ratio on the dvd box.

Theres
4:3 (1.33:1) for your regular ntsc frame
16:9 the usual widescreen ratio (1.78:1)

And then there are the more varied formats with ratios of
1.85:1 and 2.35:1

Since your display can only physically match one aspect ratio, anything on the other formats is going to have bars. For example, if you try watching a 2:35:1 ratio dvd on a 16:9 ratio dvd (1.78:1) then you'll see it appear letterboxed assuming you maintain the picture to the full width of the display and don't have any variable stretching algorithms in the display.

If you're talking about btv only; then there's probably other issues like whether the station letterboxes the widescreen video, or whether it uses a few other ways to broadcast the video. (it could for example fill a 4:3 frame and rely on a widescreen signal to stretch it out ... possibly, I don't know if they actually do this or not)