We just got a new widescreen TV. Should we buy full screen or wide screen DVDs?

Question

We assumed that if we had a wide screen TV we should get wide screen DVD's, however, the picture still has black bands at the top and bottom. Shouldn't the picture take up the entire screen? I hope this question makes sense...

Answer 1

Not all movies are created in the same aspect ratio. The movie you are probably watching is at a higher aspect ratio, since that is what the director wanted. So if your new HDTV is 1080p with a 16:9 aspect ratio, or 1.78:1, the movie you are probably viewing is most likely 2.40:1 (which is the most common, Spider Man 3 for instance is 2:35:1), and hence the black bars. You would still want to buy widescreen DVDs since full screen DVDs aspect ratio is 4:3, and would cut off the left and right of the picture of what the director intended you to see.

Answer 2

You should buy Widescreen DVD's. The "Full Screen" copies can cut off 11% of the picture on either side to make it fill the screen.

If you want to see the movie EXACTLY like it was shown in the theater - you have to live with the black bars. Movies are shot in 7 different ratios.

Your TV remote or the setup menu should have an "aspect" option that will stretch the image to fill the screen. There will be some distortion when the camera pans back and forth, but some people like not having the black bars.

Answer 3

You'll want to buy widescreen DVDs.

However, not all movies use the same aspect ratio (this is the ratio of width vs. height.) For instance, a regular TV is 4:3, and widescreen TVs are 16:9. However, some movies are in slightly different aspect ratios, like 2.35. In this instance you'll still get those black bars on the top and bottom of your screen, but they won't be as large.

Another thing you can do is to use your TV remote to put your screen in ZOOM mode, which forces the picture to fill the screen - although this will cause slight distortion as the people will look short and pudgy....

You do not want Fullscreen as this is refers to the standard TV screen ratio of 4:3. On your TV, this will result in the picture apeparing as a square in the middle of your screen with large black horizontal bars on either side. You'll get the same result when watching a non-HD TV channel for the same reason.

Answer 4

Ok Im not exactly a professional, but you should def buy widescreen dvd as opposed to full screen. Widescreen 16:9 will still have top and bottom black borders if the film is intented on being shown that way. If you buy a full screen disc, you will def notice a dramatic difference in the picture quality on your new widescreen tv. the picture will look very poor compared to the 16:9 format

Answer 5

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Gotta be WIDESCREEN! It's the only way to see the movie the way the director and cinematographer intended it to be seen! The vast majority of movies are shot "wider" than TV dimensions. (people who think fullscreen means "none of the picture is cut off" have got it backwards)