True Widescreen

I am trying to get my Macbook to display my DVDs as true widescreen. The only DVD that automatically looks like it should is Reservoir Dogs. My other DVDs, which are all Widescreen formatted, don't show up right. There is a little bit of a black border around the video, but not nearly as much border as there is in Reservoir Dogs, which looks much better in my opinion. How do I get my other DVDs to look like this? I've tried all the different settings on the DVD player and nothing is fixing this. Thanks for any help!

groovetuber said:

I am trying to get my Macbook to display my DVDs as true widescreen. The only DVD that automatically looks like it should is Reservoir Dogs. My other DVDs, which are all Widescreen formatted, don't show up right. There is a little bit of a black border around the video, but not nearly as much border as there is in Reservoir Dogs, which looks much better in my opinion. How do I get my other DVDs to look like this? I've tried all the different settings on the DVD player and nothing is fixing this. Thanks for any help!

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That's pretty typical depending on how the DVD was mastered. Some older DVDs are just not optimized for 16:9, even though they are in "widescreen". The same thing happens with my upscaling DVD player and my widescreen TV.

Oh really? Ok, thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do to fix that or not.

groovetuber said:

Oh really? Ok, thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do to fix that or not.

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Not that I know of - I'm no expert, but have exhausted just about everything I know of to try to get some of my older widescreen DVDs to display like my newer widescreen DVDs do.

For example, I have the widescreen version of Enemy of the State. When my DVD player is in 1080i, my TV will only work in widescreen (I can't select "stretch", "side stretch" or "zoom"). So, I get an elongated letterbox window. The only way to work around this that I've found is to switch the DVD player to 480p and go into "zoom" mode on the TV. It's annoying and I wish there was a DVD player that had software that was smart enough to automatically fix this.

I just ran across this page, which explains (to some extent) the reasons for this. Hope this helps....

Btw, OS X's DVD player has a zoom feature. Just zoom in to crop whatever you want.

It all has to do with movies being shot in an aspect ratio designed for the theatre in most cases. And this is really decided by the director.

There are several commonly used aspect ratio's. The most common being 1.85:1 and 2.35:1. The info on the back of the DVD case will tell you the aspect ratio of the movie. Any of them listed as 16:9 or 1.85:1 will fill your screen.

As the number on the left side goes down - it will produce side bars on a widescreen TV. As this number goes up, it will produce bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

Panasonic is about the only DVD player that provides stepped zoom options. Their players will provide only enough zoom to enlarge a 2:35 movie to fill the screens height and lose very little of the sides of the picture.

16:9 will 'fill' a macbook screen? Isn't that kind of wrong? Cause computer displays typically come in 16:10 format eh..

Also, it's not really 'decided' by the director. Movies come in 2.35:1 format cause most theatres are that way. We can see more wide than we can see tall and that's why the theatres are all extra wide. The director has to make it fit that size (or sometimes maybe 16:9 mainly restrictions due to equipment and such).

Macbook screens are indeed 16:10 aspect. You will get a small black bar at the top and bottom of a 16:9 video, and to the left and right of a 4:3. Other aspect ratios will have similar bars in similar locations but it really depends on the specific video. Unless you explicitly turn on cropping or zooming, you will more than likely not 'fill' the screen with any video unless it's specifically designed for 16:10.

Yes, my bad, started talking about TV's instead of what he was interested in.

The MacBook does indeed have a 16:10 aspect ratio.
So, even a 16:9 movie will have bars at the top and bottom.

goobimama said:

Also, it's not really 'decided' by the director. Movies come in 2.35:1 format cause most theatres are that way. We can see more wide than we can see tall and that's why the theatres are all extra wide. The director has to make it fit that size (or sometimes maybe 16:9 mainly restrictions due to equipment and such).

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Ummm... no.

Theaters have adjustable masking and different lenses for each and every auditorium to handle "flat" (1.85) and "scope" (2.39). They can play either format without any trouble at all. Furthermore, most new theaters built in the last decade or so tend to have common width screens, meaning that the screen letterboxes for scope pictures (usually only on the top or bottom, rarely both) despite the fact that aspect ratio has a higher resolution and offers more light. It seems very few theaters these days have side masking where the actual screen area gets wider for the wider format. Those theaters are far superior.

The director almost always chooses the aspect to shoot in. James Cameron, for example, shoots in Super 35. This is a non-anamorphic 35mm format which is generally grainy because it is cropped to a 2.39 aspect ratio instead of anamorpically compressed like true cinemascope. George Lucas loves shooting in true 2.39... at least he did when he shot on film. Now he shoots everything in HDTV resolution (1080p) and crops it to 2.39. Steven Spielberg loves 1.85 and (so far) has refused to move to shooting digitally like Lucas does. In fact, the only reason the Indiana Jones movies are in scope is because of Lucas' involvement with the series. The latest movie they are making now is interesting. Lucas insisted on scope, and Spielberg insisted on film. This is good, because 1.85 is a lower resolution format and HDTV video cannot compare to film. It is extremely rare to see a movie in a commercial theater these days narrower than 1.85.

Ah that's just to directors who try to make a lot of fuss over their movies. Personally I've never liked wither George's Star Wars nor Spielberg's science fiction crap. Also, I feel like telling that Spielberg to use something wider than 1.85 cause it looks really crappy in the theatres. I know about theatres adjusting lenses and such, but their choices are limited. They can't shoot 16:10 if they wanted to (yeah, they could) cause then no one would appreciate the boxy nature in the theatres.

The reason I mention this is, when it comes down to watching a movie on my screen, which is 16:10, I don't hesitate in cropping it a bit here and there at least to a 16:9 aspect. Many say "hey, the director inteded it to be.." Like I care! It looks much bigger (better) when cropped and I enjoy it more that way. The Director intended me to enjoy the film than watch it in super wide aspect...

I don't care personally what the director intended, I just don't like anything getting cut off.