..on samsung 32" ldc tv. I get black bar top and bot leaves me with a super long rectangle. when I look at my desktop its fine but playing dvds is crazy.
have tried power dvd and windows media player 11 :(
alt/enter doesnt help
The reason your standard or wide screen TV displays black bars at the top and bottom when you play certain movies or watch certain programs is simple: the video from the movies or programs does not fit the screen exactly, so the TV adds the black bars to fill the screen.
You can, however, remove or minimize the bars. The ways you can remove or minimize the black bars are described separately below for each kind of TV.
Standard TVs
Standard televisions have screens where the ratio of screen width to screen height - called the aspect ratio - is 4:3. Widescreen TVs have screens where the ratio of screen height to screen width is 16:9. Most DVD movies are formatted for widescreen TVs. Also, TV stations sometimes transmit movies in the 16:9 format.
When a DVD player plays a movie formatted for widescreen TVs on a standard TV, or a station transmits a movie in the 16:9 widescreen format, the movie typically appears in the Letter Box format. The Letter Box format displays the image so that it retains its 16:9 formatting. To do this, it spreads the movie image over the entire width of the TV screen, but not the entire height, and then puts black or gray bars at the top and bottom of the image to fill in the screen. These are the bands you are seeing on your TV.
With that said, there's a good chance you can play these widescreen movies without the black bars. To get rid of the black bars, try the following:
Check your DVD player to see if it has an aspect ratio adjustment feature. If it does, selecting the Pan and Scan, Panorama, Full, or Zoom option may remove the black bands. The price you pay for using any of these options is some distortion in the played back image.
Check the DVD disc menu before you play the movie. It may offer you a choice of playing the movie in wide screen or standard format.
Pick up a standard format version of the movie at your video store.
If you are watching a movie transmitted by a station, check your TV's owner's manual to see if your TV has an aspect ratio adjustment or screen size adjustment feature (P. Size, Zoom). If it does, selecting the Pan and Scan, Panorama, Full, or Zoom option may remove the black bands.
Wide Screen TVs
Widescreen TVs have screens where the ratio of screen height to screen width is 16:9. Some movies, however, were originally filmed in wide screen formats (CinemaScope, for example) that are wider than your TV's 16:9 format. Consequently, when you play or watch a movie filmed in one of these wider formats, your wide screen TV must add bars on the top and bottom of the movie to fill the screen.
To remove or minimize the bars, use the P.Size or Zoom control on your TV or DVD player to enlarge the movie image. Try the Panorama, Zoom 1, or Zoom 2 modes to see which works best. You'll get the movie to fill the screen, but there will be three drawbacks:
Because of the enlarging process, you'll loose the extreme left and right sides of the movie.
The picture will be less sharp.
Depending on which mode you choose, the far left and right sides of the picture may look distorted.
Important: If your TV is attached to a set-top-box, you may be able to eliminate the bars by changing the output resolution of the set-top-box.
Also Important: In many cases, the cable or over-the-air TV company is broadcasting the program or movie you are watching in a format that includes the bars. If this is the case, you cannot eliminate them.
thx Randy :rolleyes:
so basically what your saying is there are so many formats being broadcast and distrubted that you will always have to comprimise to some degree or another. even here in the year 2007.
I would suggest that if you want a a 40 inch hdtv that instead you buy a 52 inch and ignore the black bars :)
A universal broadcast format is needed ... give it ten yrs
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