[Alwayswantmore]

Curious: I have a new Pioneer 42" plasma TV. Currently connected to an old DVD player. The picture is good (considering), but most movies are in letter box (top and bottom bars). When I get a Bluray player will the bars go away, or are most movies filmed such that they need the top and bottom bars to fit into 16:9 screens?

BTW: I've tried every setting I can find, but am not able to get the black bars to disappear. Most of my use will be movies, so I'm concerned the bars may cause burn-in.

Thanks, Kent

[low.pfile]

Yes the black bars will remain.

Why? There are so many aspect ratios in films produced in the past and still currently there is no one standard. Though broadcast TV has "mostly" standardized on 16:9 so that will remove the dreaded black bars. Yes, some studios will create a cropped version of the original film to create a 16:9 DVD/BD version.

http://gregl.net/videophile/anamorphic.htm
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html
http://www.thelooniverse.com/movies/west/aspectratio/aspectratio.html

Google (aspect ratio + widescreen ) and (anamorphic)

It seems I have to explain this to my parents every few times I go home to visit.

[Alwayswantmore]

Yes the black bars will remain.

Why? There are so many aspect ratios in films produced in the past and still currently there is no one standard. Though broadcast TV has "mostly" standardized on 16:9 so that will remove the dreaded black bars. Yes, some studios will create a cropped version of the original film to create a 16:9 DVD/BD version.

http://gregl.net/videophile/anamorphic.htm
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html
http://www.thelooniverse.com/movies/west/aspectratio/aspectratio.html

Google (aspect ratio + widescreen ) and (anamorphic)

It seems I have to explain this to my parents every few times I go home to visit.

Thanks.

With standard 4:3 TV signals I can set my TV to go wide and remove the black bars. Not so with some movies. Is there a setting I'm missing that removes black bars for standard DVDs??? [Setting wide for 4:3 removes SIDE bars, where I can't remove the TOP/BOTTOM bars that show up in some movies.]

P.S. I don't know your age, but if you are on the young side, I AM probably old enough to be your parent At least with Redbook CDs there's only one standard that works in audiophile stereo systems, cars, etc. This whole TV / Hi-def thing is kind of a mess (due to lack of standards). Oh well, free enterprise at work 

[low.pfile]

I am 41. I didn't mean to imply anything about age. Its just that I am very familiar with photography, some video and all things spatial as a designer, so I laugh at the different ways I have explained it to the parents. with photos and a paper window to a computer screen via photoshop.

Removing the black bars can usually be done via the media player or TV. I use the TV (Sony LCD). My remote has a button labeled "WIDE" and it cycles between Wide Zoom-Normal-Full-Zoom. "Full" distorts the image as needed to remove the blk bands, "Zoom" just zooms into the center cropping off the bands and the sides. Your LCD/Plasma sould have something similar.
I almost always leave the black bands to get the intended image of directors.

hope that helps
ed

[Alwayswantmore]

I am 41. I didn't mean to imply anything about age. Its just that I am very familiar with photography, some video and all things spatial as a designer, so I laugh at the different ways I have explained it to the parents. with photos and a paper window to a computer screen via photoshop.

Removing the black bars can usually be done via the media player or TV. I use the TV (Sony LCD). My remote has a button labeled "WIDE" and it cycles between Wide Zoom-Normal-Full-Zoom. "Full" distorts the image as needed to remove the blk bands, "Zoom" just zooms into the center cropping off the bands and the sides. Your LCD/Plasma sould have something similar.
I almost always leave the black bands to get the intended image of directors.

hope that helps
ed

Thanks Ed. You're a bit too old to be my kid  I'm big into 2ch and I'm analytical and fairly technical. But I'm new to the latest standards in TV (I had been fully satisfied with my 36" 4:3 tube TV until it didn't fit the decor of our new house).

The Pioneer has a both Zoom and Wide, and they work fine with a cable TV source. On the otherhand, my DVD is old (not even progressive scan), and I've been holding out to learn more about the soon to be released Panasonic BD-50 before investing in a BluRay player.

I've read that plasma is susceptible to burn-in, so the idea of black bars concerns me. I've also read that once the newer plasmas have 100 - 200 hours, they are really no different than CRTs in terms of burn in, so it's not clear whether this is a problem or not.

You are right in that likely the Bluray player will have a user setting that allows me to get around this. I was just hoping that combining a new Hi-def TV, with a Hi-def player (Bluray) would allow me to finally get to use all the pixels. I wasn't aware that there were that many standards to deal with.

Thanks again for the info.

For the record, I've read Pioneer's blurb on avoiding burn-in, so I'm following their advice in terms of settings. The only point I can't currently follow is eliminating the top and bottom bars with my older DVD.

Take care, Kent

[klh]

The following link has a "Plasma Break-In DVD" video that you can download and save to a DVD-R disk. All you do is set it to repeat when playing it in your DVD player and let it cycle through the various images for 8-10 hours at a time. I used it on my two Panasonic plasmas I purchased last November and haven't had one sniff of burn-in let alone image retention. I had the Plasmas break in while I was at work for the first couple weeks. Along with playing the DVD, I made sure I had all the setting zeroed out for the first 150 or so hours of use. I was also a bit paranoid so I didn't let the TV sit on one channel for more than a half hour for the first 150 hours. It worked like a charm!

http://www.eaprogramming.com/

[Alwayswantmore]

The following link has a "Plasma Break-In DVD" video that you can download and save to a DVD-R disk. All you do is set it to repeat when playing it in your DVD player and let it cycle through the various images for 8-10 hours at a time. I used it on my two Panasonic plasmas I purchased last November and haven't had one sniff of burn-in let alone image retention. I had the Plasmas break in while I was at work for the first couple weeks. Along with playing the DVD, I made sure I had all the setting zeroed out for the first 150 or so hours of use. I was also a bit paranoid so I didn't let the TV sit on one channel for more than a half hour for the first 150 hours. It worked like a charm!

http://www.eaprogramming.com/

Thanks for the great link. I did the free download and put it on a thumbdrive. Also read some of the educational stuff on related link. Looks like an excellent suggestion for any new plasma set.