2 things that bother me about widescreen format

[emon87]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Number two is pretty easily fixed by switching your tv to 4:3 or whatever it is.

[/ QUOTE ]

So then it's not really HD and it's not 16:9 format so why would they put this crap on a HD channel and tout it as being HD? Why would I want to watch Contact in 4:3 aspect on a HD channel when it should be 16:9?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's never been HD and it never will be. Stretching it to fit doesn't make it HD. it wasn't recorded in 16:9 so you can't watch it in 16:9.

Why do you think they tout it as being HD?

[/ QUOTE ]

Um no...almost every movie is filmed either in 16:9 or 2.35:1...at least movies that are past the 1940s/50s. The OPs issue is a TNTHD one, not a TV issue. They broadcast things that should be in HD in 4:3 and then "stretch" the picture for the 16:9 channel.

Yes if you hardcode your TV for 4:3 it will fix the problem, but the issue is TNTHD. They need to letterbox their non-HD content like every other station does, not stretch it. Or perhaps they should just stop showing converted 2.35:1 or 16:9 movies in 4:3 pan-and-scan mode stretched to 16:9 on their HD channel. If you get TNTHD check it out. It's a really poor HD channel imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

um you missed the point entirely.

[emon87]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok I wanted to clarify what I meant with the chopped off subtitles. Sorry about the poor picture quality but it should be good enough to get my point across. Notice how I have to distort the image in order to see the full subtitles.

Here is a picture of default, non-subtitle display:


Here is a picture with subtitles turned on:


Here is a picture of my picture adjusted so I can see the full subtitles:


[/ QUOTE ]

the third image is how your TV and the picture is supposed to look.

[tagtastic]

[ QUOTE ]
Um no...almost every movie is filmed either in 16:9 or 2.35:1...at least movies that are past the 1940s/50s. The OPs issue is a TNTHD one, not a TV issue. They broadcast things that should be in HD in 4:3 and then "stretch" the picture for the 16:9 channel.

Yes if you hardcode your TV for 4:3 it will fix the problem, but the issue is TNTHD. They need to letterbox their non-HD content like every other station does, not stretch it. Or perhaps they should just stop showing converted 2.35:1 or 16:9 movies in 4:3 pan-and-scan mode stretched to 16:9 on their HD channel. If you get TNTHD check it out. It's a really poor HD channel imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

TNT HD makes me want to hit someone. Well over half their "HD" movies are the 4:3 edited versions that they stretch, ridiculous - they could just broadcast the freaking DVD and it'd look better. Also every single commercial is stretched 4:3, grr. Their broadcast quality on real HD movies doesn't seem very good either compared to other channels, I think their equipment is just terrible. Not to mention all the commercials.

There is a reason to watch 4:3 content on an HD channel however (unstretched please!) - the HD channels have significantly more bandwidth than the SD channel on most cable/satellite systems. Stuff like Simpsons & Family guy look a lot better on the Fox HD channel than the SD because of this.

And to people saying "if the original broadcast wasn't HD, it can't be made into HD" are wrong in most cases. The vast majority of quality, non-live television shows and pretty much all movies are shot on film. To make a broadcast or DVD, they scan this film. Since Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, they release HD versions by re-scanning the original film at a much higher resolution than SDTV or DVD.

[john voight]

what movie is this BTW? Is it good?

[GTL]

you understand how to solve the problem. what you don't understand is that movies are shot in different aspect ratios. most movies are shot in either 16:9 or 2.35:1. tv shows are shot in either 4:3 or 16:9.

Now, 4:3 is the shape of old school tv's. so if you are watching a show that was shot in 4:3 on a widescreen tv (which has a screen that fits a 16:9 aspect ratio) there will be black bars on the left and right side when you are displaying it properly.

if you are watching a tv show or movie shot in 16:9 it should fill the widescreen tv completely.

if you are watching a movie shot in 2.35:1 then there will be black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. When you can't see the subtitles it is because you are zooming in on a 2.35:1 movie. you not only miss the subtitles which appear in the black bar, but you distort the movie and/or chop off the left and right edges.

not all tv shows and movies are going to fill a 16:9 screen. it doesn't work that way.

as for the HD channels, some of them do screwy things. and as other posters have mentioned, it's only HD if it was shot in HD. otherwise they're just sticking old crap on an HD channel.

my dad never changes our tv out of wide screen mode and is always watching 4:3 shows stretched to fit 16:9. i don't understand how he can do that. The picture looks terrible.

[gisb0rne]

[ QUOTE ]
what movie is this BTW? Is it good?

[/ QUOTE ]

The Host, and no.

My TV defaults to a certain setting when I show DVD's. Some movies do show on that setting with bars on top and bottom, some do not. I always assumed that some movies on DVD were put in 16:9 format and some were not. Is that not the case, and my TV is magically stretching some movies and not others on the same setting? That doesn't make sense to me.

I just read the manual for my TV and, correct me if I'm wrong, this is how I percieve it to work:

The DVD output is in 4:3 format, with appropriate letterboxing depending on the movie. My TV stretches that format depending on what setting I have it on. Now on a movie with subtitles, there is plenty of blackspace in a 4:3 format for the subtitles. However, if I stretch the picture to fit the TV without distortion, the subtitles get chopped off since they are partially in the blackspace of the 4:3 format that got eliminated. So in order to see the subtitles I have to use a setting that stretches the picture wider so that part of the blackspace is still visible. This results in a distorted (horizontally stretched) picture in order to be able to see the subtitles.

That is my complaint.

[Yads]

There is not a chance the third image is how the movie is supposed to look. Look at the backboard in the top right hand corner.

gisborne, it could be a setting on your dvd player. Check the dvd system menu and see if you can find what the output is sent out as. It could be set to output at 4:3 instead of 16:9.

[dustyn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Number two is pretty easily fixed by switching your tv to 4:3 or whatever it is.

[/ QUOTE ]

So then it's not really HD and it's not 16:9 format so why would they put this crap on a HD channel and tout it as being HD? Why would I want to watch Contact in 4:3 aspect on a HD channel when it should be 16:9?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's never been HD and it never will be. Stretching it to fit doesn't make it HD. it wasn't recorded in 16:9 so you can't watch it in 16:9.

Why do you think they tout it as being HD?

[/ QUOTE ]

Um no...almost every movie is filmed either in 16:9 or 2.35:1...at least movies that are past the 1940s/50s. The OPs issue is a TNTHD one, not a TV issue. They broadcast things that should be in HD in 4:3 and then "stretch" the picture for the 16:9 channel.

Yes if you hardcode your TV for 4:3 it will fix the problem, but the issue is TNTHD. They need to letterbox their non-HD content like every other station does, not stretch it. Or perhaps they should just stop showing converted 2.35:1 or 16:9 movies in 4:3 pan-and-scan mode stretched to 16:9 on their HD channel. If you get TNTHD check it out. It's a really poor HD channel imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

um you missed the point entirely.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't miss the point - you are just incorrect. The movie was recorded in widescreen format and broadcasted BY the station in pan and scan format. The movie was most certainly filmed in widescreen and simply parsed into the format by the station. So saying it "will never be HD" is incorrect. Yes, stretching a 4:3 format dosen't make it HD, but just because the station butchered the broadcast doesn't mean it will "never be in HD."

[Nicholasp27]

ur tv is fine

use pic 3 setting

u SHOULD see bars on top/bottom when watching widescreen dvds because ur tv is 16:9 (1.78:1) but movies are all diff ratios, such as 2.35:1

so u should have bars at top and bottom; the wider the movie's ratio, the bigger the bars...some movies will only be in the middle half or even less of the screen, while others will fill most of it up

spiderman: 1.85:1 -> most of screen filled with pic; small bars on top/bottom

X2: 2.4:1 -> less of screen filled with pic; larger bars on top/bottom

[Kneel B4 Zod]

if all movies are shot in such a way that they fll 100% of a movie theatre screen, why can't they all be formatted the same on DVD?