Widescreen Laptop + Wide Screen DVD = ???

[X-Caliber]

Hi,

A friend of mine just got a 15.4" Toshiba Widescreen (M35-M320). I quickly popped in Star Trek Nemesis, a widescreen DVD, but the BLACK bars on both the top and bottom are still there.

I thought the bars from the widescreen DVDs would disappear when played on a widescreen display. btw, I am using WinDVD.

Thanks,

-V-

[Rob(QG)]

Widescreen films are often wider screen than widescreen displays.
If the display is 16:9 that equates to 1.78:1

Widescreen films are often 2.35:1 or higher.
There should be an option to zoom in the picture to fill a 16:9 screen - you'll lose a bit at the edges of course, but in most cases you won't notice.

[Jammrock]

Not only that but different movies are filmed in different ratios. It all depends on the directors and cinematographers tastes. That would make it all but impossible to make a single display that could cover the entire spectrum of ratios.

The only exception is for projectors with video processors. They can take the pure anamorphic video and only show the video parts since the screen size for projectors is adjustable.

Jammrock