DVDMax with 16:9 movies on 4:3 TVs

[Maggi]

Howdy Guys,

there is an option in the DVD Max TV settings ...

It is defaulted to 'always fullscreen', set it to 'mainatin 4:3 aspect ratio' and it will add a letter box giving you the right picture onto your tele.



I don't know the exact lables of those buttons, but you'll find 'em.

Cheers,
Maggi

[Maggi]

maybe I should read the whole text before answering ...

as I read now, you already used that option.

I have the matrix at home, but I always used to see it on my 16:9 TV ... if I'll find the time, I'll check the 4:3 playback.

Cheers,
Maggi

[Paradizer]

DVDMax with 16:9 movies on 4:3 TVs

Hi there!

I just kicked in "Matrix" as the first DVD to be watched on my TV with DVDMax...
First of all I gotta say "Yeah"! Nice image quality without any flickers or interrupts :-)
The only issue I noticed is the video format. When I watched "The making of" which is 4:3 everything was in the right shape. But when I switched to the movie which is of course 16:9 I felt like the characters looked more narrow than normal...
I selected 4:3 as output format in PD so I see those black thingies on top/bottom of the screen. But inspite of this the image looks slightly pushed tight from the sides so Neo's head is getting less wide/taller...

Does anyone encounter the same prob? Any solutions???


Regards, Para


BTW: What's the best config of all those DVDMax options and/or DVD Genie's with the Matrox (CineMaster 99) Player???
Any recommendations?

[RAB]

No solution, but an observation. "The Matrix" original format is much wider than 16:9. Its more like 24:9. So that would mean that to view the entire frame at 16:9 would require some horizontal compression and thus the narrow characters.

I've only watched it on my monitor and not on a TV. But to watch it on my monitor, I had to run it in a window and stretch the window to the screen width while letting the Cinemaster choose the correct height. You might try that.

RAB

[Paradizer]

LO RAB!

Thanks mate! That explains it... So that's no PD issue rather then a Matrix one :-)
I hadn't the possibility to get another film till now - I'll try later! BTW, on my monitor the picture has the correct aspect ratio.

Cheers, Para

[Bixler]

up

[Damien Green]

Bixler - I'm a little confused - this is the third post I've seen from you that just says 'up' - maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand these random posts.

[This message has been edited by Damien Green (edited 16 May 2000).]

[Wombat]

Damien: I hope that's sarcasm.

Paradizer: you need to practice with other DVD's first. The Matrix does have a funky aspect ratio. On my monitor i can see two different blacks: the dark Trinitron black that blacks out the part that 16:9 doesn't use, and a lighter black that comes from the 20:9 or whatever ratio the DVD player is showing the movie in. Other movies give me only the Trinitron color.

[Wombat]

Damien: I hope that's sarcasm.

Paradizer: you need to practice with other DVD's first. The Matrix does have a funky aspect ratio. On my monitor i can see two different blacks: the dark Trinitron black that blacks out the part that 16:9 doesn't use, and a lighter black that comes from the 20:9 or whatever ratio the DVD player is showing the movie in. Other movies give me only the Trinitron color.

[RAB]

Did you notice that on "The Matrix" that there is a slight green tint to the entire movie. I thought this was a defect of either Cinemaster or the G400, but when I rented it on VHS, it had the same tint on TV.

Another movie I had problems with the aspect ratio was "Goldeneye". It must be wider than 16:9 also. After the intro, when the credits start and Bond shoots at you through the "tube", the tube is oval unless you manually set the aspect ratio.

RAB

[Paradizer]

Thanks for your support guys!

I'm really new to that DVDMax thingie so I'll try various DVDs the next few weeks...

RAB

It seems that there must be a way of adjusting the aspect ratio manually... How do you do that??? PD? DVD Genie? Don't you loose too much at the outter edges?

Shouts, Para

[RAB]

Paradizer,
I'm still learning, too. I've just manually adjusted aspect ratios by adjusting the window size. I downloaded DVD Genie, but haven't tried it out yet. I need to get another DVD and try it. There are a lot more heavy movie watchers here than me. Perhaps someone can give us both some pointers.

RAB

[glarec]

damien: there's a reason why bixler did the 'up' thing. did you happened to observed that for every post right above bixler's 'up' post happened to be dated at 1997? it seems that after the crash, the date/time on the server was reset. and everyone who posted before the time changed pulled the thread way back to the end. all bixler did was going to everyone of those post and brought it back up

thanx bixler!!!!

[Damien Green]

Cheers - thats clarified everything - sorry Bixler - it appears you were doing us a real service - thanks!

[This message has been edited by Damien Green (edited 17 May 2000).]

[wiggo]

Paradizer: If you are watching the DVD on a 4:3 TV make sure that under 'DVDMax Settings'
select "TV Aspect Ratio - 4:3 (Standard)" and "Aspect Ratio Detection Method - Detect based on video window size". These seetings should be the same whatever movie you are watching.
The reason that 'The Matrix' looks 'squashy' if not set up correctly is because the transfer on the DVD is anamorphic - this means that the picture is purposely squashed inwards so that on a Widescreen TV set the picture is returned to normal by just stretching the image back again. This results in a 33% increase in vertical resolution, since if the transfer was letterboxed as normal, the picture would require zooming to be viewed full screen on a widescreen TV. However, a widescreen TV has an aspect ratio of 1:1.78 whereas 'The Matrix' has an aspect ratio of 1:2.35 (as do many other films) - ie, it is even wider. Because of this, even on a widescreen TV black bars appear top and bottom - these black bars are actually on the transfer, which is why they are not totally black when viewed on a screen.
By setting the options in your DVD Player (and in DVDMax) so that they know that your TV has a normal 4:3 ratio the anamorphic picture can be converted to the appropriate size so that it doesn't appear squashed on the TV.

RAB: Yeah, that colour tint is there on purpose, to give a slight feeling of unreality to the world. There are a lot of these touches in 'The Matrix' - the sky is often tinted grey and slow motion is used along with normal speed shots.

[This message has been edited by wiggo (edited 17 May 2000).]

[This message has been edited by wiggo (edited 17 May 2000).]