# Independence Day Screen Size



## rleffler (Mar 21, 2007)

I downloaded the widescreen version of Independence Day. It appeared like it was a 16x9 widescreen image on a standard 4x3 screen. This looked really strange on my 16x9 screen with black bars on all four sides.

I haven't tried any other widescreen movies yet. I'm curious as if anyone else has noticed the same issue.


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## jeff125va (Jun 4, 2007)

It's mostly semantic, but this is the difference between "letterbox" and true widescreen. The image coming to your TV is 4:3, and the black bars are part of the image. If it were truly widescreen, like HDTV or an "anamorphic widescreen" DVD (I rarely see the term "anamorphic" anymore, since that's pretty much standard now), you would only see the black bars if the actual movie portion of the image were a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, otherwise it would fill your entire 16:9 screen. In any case, you certainly wouldn't have pillar bars (vertical black bars on the sides).


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## jtn (Oct 18, 2007)

rleffler said:


> I downloaded the widescreen version of Independence Day. It appeared like it was a 16x9 widescreen image on a standard 4x3 screen. This looked really strange on my 16x9 screen with black bars on all four sides.
> 
> I haven't tried any other widescreen movies yet. I'm curious as if anyone else has noticed the same issue.


Most VOD is SD/ not many if any HD yet. Not sure on that however.


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## GoLaLakers (Oct 12, 2006)

jeff125va said:


> It's mostly semantic, but this is the difference between "letterbox" and true widescreen. The image coming to your TV is 4:3, and the black bars are part of the image. If it were truly widescreen, like HDTV or an "anamorphic widescreen" DVD (I rarely see the term "anamorphic" anymore, since that's pretty much standard now), you would only see the black bars if the actual movie portion of the image were a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, otherwise it would fill your entire 16:9 screen. In any case, you certainly wouldn't have pillar bars (vertical black bars on the sides).


This makes sense. What you saw was a 4x3 2.35 Letterbox version. To fill your screen completely from left to right, the image you down load needs to be 16x9. With 16x9, your typical choices are 16x9 1.78/1.77 (Full Frame) or 16x9 Letterbox which will have black mattes at the top and bottom. Letterbox is usually 2.35 or 1.85 letterbox, but this all depends on the original aspect ratio of the film. My guess is since this is early on, 4x3 was what was delivered to Direct TV for the intial roll out of Out Demand programming. This should change over time.


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## rabi (Feb 10, 2006)

rleffler said:


> I downloaded the widescreen version of Independence Day. It appeared like it was a 16x9 widescreen image on a standard 4x3 screen. This looked really strange on my 16x9 screen with black bars on all four sides.
> 
> I haven't tried any other widescreen movies yet. I'm curious as if anyone else has noticed the same issue.


Im sure your tv has some kind of stretch option...like Normal, Full, Crop, etc...

I use the Full option on my Toshiba TV to "fill" the 16x9 screen...


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## GoLaLakers (Oct 12, 2006)

rabi said:


> Im sure your tv has some kind of stretch option...like Normal, Full, Crop, etc...
> 
> I use the Full option on my Toshiba TV to "fill" the 16x9 screen...


You can do this, but the image will be distorted. I think the OP was mislead by the term widescreen. The image that was downloaded was 4x3 Letterbox. It's widescreen, in that he has a more fuller image because you are not losing anything of the periphery, like you do with 4x3 1.33 or P/S image.


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## terryfoster (Nov 15, 2006)

GoLaLakers said:


> You can do this, but the image will be distorted.


I wouldn't use the term "distorted" if all you're doing is proportionally scaling the image in size to fit your screen. As rabi was trying to say most HDTVs have zoom functions to take a pillar and letter boxed image and fill the screen. Sure the grainyness will be enhanced as the picture is now bigger, but it certainly wouldn't be distorted.


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## jeff125va (Jun 4, 2007)

terryfoster said:


> I wouldn't use the term "distorted" if all you're doing is proportionally scaling the image in size to fit your screen. As rabi was trying to say most HDTVs have zoom functions to take a pillar and letter boxed image and fill the screen. Sure the grainyness will be enhanced as the picture is now bigger, but it certainly wouldn't be distorted.


It depends what the "full" option does. If it just stretches it horizontally (which you would normally use for something with an original aspect ratio of 4:3, not really appropriate in this case), then it would be distorted. I think different brands use the terms differently. A zoom option (which I'm used to seeing called "zoom") would fill the screen both vertically and horizontally with no distortion in the sense of stretching in either direction. You might still have black bars at the top and bottom depending whether they left the original 2.35:1 aspect ration intact, or cropped it to 16:9.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

My TV has an automatic setting which eliminates all bars and stretches the live content to fill. Works pretty well.


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## Wisegoat (Aug 17, 2006)

rleffler said:


> I downloaded the widescreen version of Independence Day. It appeared like it was a 16x9 widescreen image on a standard 4x3 screen. This looked really strange on my 16x9 screen with black bars on all four sides.
> 
> I haven't tried any other widescreen movies yet. I'm curious as if anyone else has noticed the same issue.


This is correct. You are watching a 4:3 source, that is showing 16:9 material. So you are first seeing the pillar bars on the left and right, because it is a 4:3 source. Then you are seeing letterboxing on the top and bottom because they are showing 16:9 material.

While this does reduce the overall size of the image, you are seeing it in the correct aspect ratio. For more on that lively topic of conversation see just about every thread on HD in this forum!


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## GoLaLakers (Oct 12, 2006)

terryfoster said:


> I wouldn't use the term "distorted" if all you're doing is proportionally scaling the image in size to fit your screen. As rabi was trying to say most HDTVs have zoom functions to take a pillar and letter boxed image and fill the screen. Sure the grainyness will be enhanced as the picture is now bigger, but it certainly wouldn't be distorted.


Yes, most equipment has some form of zoom feature. But in some cases, this will cause you to loose some of the picture. This defeats the whole purpose of widescreen, not mention zooming in on a standard def image on a 50" screen will not look good. There is also stretch mode, which will make the image distorted.

The creative side of the entertainment industry favors the widescreen approach, as that how most of this product was intended to be shown. The consumer on the other hand wants the entire screen to be filled. Some people even complain when their 16x9 image is 1.85 or 2.35. I personally ignore the mattes, as long as the movie is good. If it sucks, well maybe the black bars might bother me.:lol:


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## djzack67 (Sep 18, 2007)

GoLaLakers said:


> Yes, most equipment has some form of zoom feature. But in some cases, this will cause you to loose some of the picture. This defeats the whole purpose of widescreen, not mention zooming in on a standard def image on a 50" screen will not look good. There is also stretch mode, which will make the image distorted.
> 
> The creative side of the entertainment industry favors the widescreen approach, as that how most of this product was intended to be shown. The consumer on the other hand wants the entire screen to be filled. Some people even complain when their 16x9 image is 1.85 or 2.35. I personally ignore the mattes, as long as the movie is good. If it sucks, well maybe the black bars might bother me.:lol:


If it sucks, well maybe the black bars might bother me - Right on.......


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## jeff125va (Jun 4, 2007)

GoLaLakers said:


> Yes, most equipment has some form of zoom feature. But in some cases, this will cause you to loose some of the picture. This defeats the whole purpose of widescreen, not mention zooming in on a standard def image on a 50" screen will not look good. There is also stretch mode, which will make the image distorted.
> 
> The creative side of the entertainment industry favors the widescreen approach, as that how most of this product was intended to be shown. The consumer on the other hand wants the entire screen to be filled. Some people even complain when their 16x9 image is 1.85 or 2.35. I personally ignore the mattes, as long as the movie is good. If it sucks, well maybe the black bars might bother me.:lol:


Yeah, the zoom modes cause you to lose a little of the picture, but the really annoying part is losing the on-screen display stuff from whatever you're playing it on. On an HR20, I think you'd lose just about the entire title bar.


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