Blu-ray Aspect Ratio Change

[Animeniax]

I'm watching The Dark Knight blu-ray on a Sony BDP-S350 and Asus VW246H via HDMI connection and it keeps switching between full screen and having black bars on top and bottom of the screen. It seems scenes with outdoor city views are full screen, but all indoor scenes are not. Any ideas why this happens?

[darkshadow]

lol, its not "fullscreen" silly, those scenes were shot with a fully digital IMAX camera.

The imax scenes are in 1.78:1 I beleive which almost equals 16:9, the normal scenes are in 2.35:1 however, which is super wide screen or "cinema widescreen".
There is also an ultra wide screen, at 2.76:1, dubbed "Ben Hur" mode

[Animeniax]

So is there a way to make it not revert to cinema widescreen and stay in "full screen" mode all the time? I don't like the black bars.

[darkshadow]

Ugh, like I said, the scenes were shot like that, it doesn't "revert" to anything, that's how the movie was filmed.
2.35:1 just simply doesn't fit inside 16:9, many blu-ray releases are like this simply cause converting the movie to 1.78:1 would remove some of the visible image.

Though there are also plenty of movies which get shot in 16:9, if you want to avoid the ones that aren't simply check the blu-ray case, It should say what the movie aspect ratio is.

[Animeniax]

Nuts, I get my movies from Netflix so no cases included.

Is there no setting on the player or TV to keep it in clipped full screen mode? I don't mind losing some of the visible image if it fills the screen.

[darkshadow]

Hmm, there should be some sort of zoom function on your TV, I know mine has it, not sure if the player would have one.

just checked your screen, seems to be a monitor excusively, so I don't think it has that option :(

[Animeniax]

Yep it's a monitor only. At first I was concerned it was a setting problem with the monitor switching modes and getting confused so maybe it was reverting to a less optimal resolution. If it's just filmed in different modes then I'll have to live with it. Thanks for the clarification.

[Animeniax]

Just FYI, but The Dark Knight in blu-ray at 1080P is amazing. First I watched a ripped xvid copy of the movie and couldn't make it more than half way through. I re-watched the entire movie in blu-ray and loved it.

[Psyke]

I bought my first Bluray disc last week in the form of Ironman, which well, I liked more than The Dark Knight. I was expecting to be blown away by the details and resolution, but frankly it was just slightly better than DVD. Can't be blamed, since I only have a HD ready TV and not a Full HD one.

[Animeniax]

So you watched it at 720p, 1080i, or 1080p?

I thought the quality of the image in the Dark Knight dropped after the first 30 minutes, but it was probably just my eyes and mind getting used to the image. The IMAX scenes were amazing throughout, for the 10-15 minutes they were displayed.

[Psyke]

1080i. It's the best my TV can offer. I suppose it's because i was expecting IMAX quality since I saw them playing The Dark Knight in the stores.

[darkshadow]

FYI. 720p > 1080i.
If your tv is native 720p, definitly set it to 720p, your picture will be so much better.

I can't really go back to non-hd for live action movies, the fuzziness of the picture just pains my eyes.

[Psyke]

720p? Is it better for just Bluray movies or even games? I'm referring to the PS3 here.

[David75]

720p? Is it better for just Bluray movies or even games? I'm referring to the PS3 here.

Well 720p is better for a non full HD capable screen.
If your screen is native 1920x1080 resolution, then the choice beetween 720p and 1080i will depend on what you watch...

Sports/action/quick scenes will benefit from 720p.
Detailed and peacefull sceneries, anything that needs more resolution than speed, you could try 1080i

But if you have a fullHD capable screen and 1080p choice, then that is the best choice. but that 1080p depends on the disc, player, TV...

Then there's the 24p mode (24 full frames per second) that is or isn't well managed by the screen, and sometimes marketing lies about that...

[Psyke]

Sadly I only have a 42 inch HD ready LCD tv. I guess I'll try to set the resolution to 720p to see if they're any better. Thanks for the advice and explainations guys.

[Munsu]

Wether the source is 720p, 1080i, or 1080p... does the TV itself display them properly? Do you have to change some setting in the tv itself? Or does the TV simply acquires the display information from whatever input the source is coming from?

Like say, for example, connected through RGB to my laptop... and I have it with resolution 1920x1080. Don't know if I have to add/change some settings after that...

[darkshadow]

Unless your tv has some sort of build in scaler, it won't accept resolutions higher then it's native, so if it accepts the 1080 resolution, it MIGHT be 1080i, my tv does the same thing if I set my x360 to 1080, the ps3 simply refuses to give an image then.
360 on VGA, ps3 on HDMI.

So just check your tv's specs.

[Munsu]

This is my tv:
http://www.vizio.com/productDetails.aspx?id=2638

So, I ask again... assuming that the source is 1080p, like some Blu Ray rip for example, I have the TV connected via VGA to my laptop with a resolution of 1920x1080, once I play the video, it should be displaying it at 1080p right? Or is there some other setting I need to be aware of wether it is a tv setting or something I might need to change in my laptop?

I think I have everything setup correctly, but I just want to make sure that I'm not ignoring a step since I didn't change any setting regarding the display in my tv's settings... all I did was put the correct resolution in my laptop and that's it.

[David75]

This is my tv:
http://www.vizio.com/productDetails.aspx?id=2638

So, I ask again... assuming that the source is 1080p, like some Blu Ray rip for example, I have the TV connected via VGA to my laptop with a resolution of 1920x1080, once I play the video, it should be displaying it at 1080p right? Or is there some other setting I need to be aware of wether it is a tv setting or something I might need to change in my laptop?

I think I have everything setup correctly, but I just want to make sure that I'm not ignoring a step since I didn't change any setting regarding the display in my tv's settings... all I did was put the correct resolution in my laptop and that's it.

Page 31 of the manual:


Resolution (1920x1080) through RGB (15-Pin VGA)
Input
If your PC supports VESA Reduce Blanking timing via the VGA card drive program (usually offered by the
VGA Card Manufacturer), your TV set is equipped to have the 1920X1080 resolution display through this
connection using the following timing 136.5MHz. The following parameters are often the values required
by the software or programs to set up the display:

It's very nice of them to offer the precise settings for that resolution, as most other screens will simply reject resolutions over 1024*768 even if they are FullHD when connecting through VGA.

So technically this isn't as good as connecting with a hdmi video card, because you have analog signals in VGA, but this could be good. Be sure to have a very good VGA cable, because 1920*1080 pixels @ 60Hz makes a lot of data in analog and it all depends on connections and cable there.

Also, if you have a blu-ray encoded at 24Hz, the conversion to 60Hz may produce some judder (or is it jitter?) because 60 isn't a multiple of 24, and you can't select 48 or 72Hz through VGA as only 60 seems to be available.

That's all ;)
Oh, and if your card has a dvi output, you might connect that screen through DVI with a DVI to Hdmi adapter (or cable if you can still find them)

[Munsu]

Na', VGA is the only video output I have on my laptop.

Got to see how to do that timing thing with my video card, and how to go about it. I currently have a NVIDIA Quadrio NVS 140m.

[David75]

Na', VGA is the only video output I have on my laptop.

Got to see how to do that timing thing with my video card, and how to go about it. I currently have a NVIDIA Quadrio NVS 140m.

If you're asking, I can give you hints (beware I translate menus from french)
Nvidia Control Panel>Manage Personal(User) Resolutions
Then create
You have a popup asking for basic info and you have an Advanced option.
Then the popup unfolds and you can put the settings there.
Validate test and you should have the new mode available for the screen.

Should it not work -drivers are full of surprises...- PowerStrip is a more advanced solution that will also give you precise tuning. As it's more powerful, I'll let you find tutorials (eventhough it can be pretty straightforward)

[Munsu]

Hmm, I put the settings correctly, but for some reason the image goes beyond what is seen on the TV. For example, If I put a move in full screen, the movie itself will be wider (so I don't see some of the things that happen in the width edges in full screen)... same thing is the case with the height. I think the manual has the incorrect settings or something, or I don't know what I'm missing. The picture looks correct when I let NVDIA auto set the timing settings, but then again I'm not sure if those are the optimum ones or what.

So what do you think might be the problem? Or do think that the auto-settings should be enough? I have a feeling that once I put those timing settings on, the correct resolution is not displayed on the TV or something.

I don't know what the fuck VESA is by the way, but I assume my card should be able to do it.

Keep in mind, that under "Timing Standard" the only way I can adjust the settings is by putting it on Manual. There's one setting called CTV Reduced Black... is that what the they reffer to as VESA Reduce Blanking? Maybe it's simply that my card doesn't support VESA and I'm assuming incorrectly.

If not, what timing standards are usually recommended? The NVIDIA Control Center gives me these choices: Auto, GTF, DMT, CTV, CTV Reduce Blank.

[David75]

I'll come back later with some link in english, should I find one.
Maybe the Nvidia options are unavailable, or do not work as they should which seems to be quite usual.

Your best option would then be PowerStrip. It does marvels in managing exotic resolutions and refresh rates. I'm fairly sure that a PowerStrip+Tutorial googling can help:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%2BPowerStrip+%2BTutorial&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

I didn't have much problems using it, I'm off to work so I'll update/or answer later ;)

[Munsu]

Looks like a good application. Do you know if it causes any kind of conflict between the card drivers already installed and the NVIDIA Control Center?

[David75]

Looks like a good application. Do you know if it causes any kind of conflict between the card drivers already installed and the NVIDIA Control Center?

To my knowledge, there's no trouble, plus you can easilly uninstall it as it's not a bloatware.

When you use a tailormade resolution with PS, you can always set a standard one with the nvidia panel after if needed. PS isn't exclusive, it works when/if you want it to.

The advantage of using it is to be sure the settings are applied/work, you can get detailed screen EDID etc.

For some reasons, most of the time the advanced settings in the Nvidia panel aren't applied it seems, it's a shame really.