Some DVDs play in 16:9 aspect without distortion on 16:9 screens, but some only on 4:3 screens. Why?

Question

Playing DVDs of movies recorded in 16:9 aspect I find that some will only play in that aspect on a 4:3 aspect screen with black bars top and bottom. Switching to a 16:9 ("wide") screen, merely stretches the image horizontally resulting in a badly distorted image. The full height of the 16:9 screen is not used. Why and how can I tell which DVDs behave this way and which will actually play on the full 16:9 screen?

Answer 1

Your DVD player should be able to play movies on either screen, but you have to set it up so that it knows which TV you have. When you change TVs, go to the DVD player setup menu, find where you can select TV aspect ratio. You can then select either 16:9 or 4:3. In addition, if you are using a 4:3 TV, you can also select how the player handles widescreen (anamorphic) movies. It is best to select "letterbox".

Answer 2

What kind of screen are you actually using? If it's a 4:3 AR then you should leave it set on 4:3 AR, regardless of what the movie AR is. If you have a 16:9 AR screen then set it to 16:9 AR. Some DVDs come with full screen on one side of the disk and widescreen on the other side... make sure you choose the correct side for the AR of your TV. Some older DVDs are non-anamorphic, which will give you problems with AR. You might post your question over at http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums in the Video Displays section.

Answer 3

If you have everything set up correctly, a 16x9 movie sometimes will not take up the entire 16x9 TV screen. You need to check the movie box to make sure that it is enhanced for widescreen tv's and that usually gets rid of the black bars at the top/bottom of the screen.

Answer 4

The answer to your question is two fold :
first what DVDs are you watching full screen or widescreen?
Second the aspect ratio of each DVD is one the back, this will tell you what it will look like on your TV, and what it is capable of playing.