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In Reply to: I was wondering the same thing posted by Analog Scott on November 11, 2006 at 13:09:44:
I've got DVDs which say "wide screen" on the packaging, but which deliver a 2.35:1 aspect ratio film in letterbox format for a 4:3 screen."Wide screen" refers to the film aspect ratio in much packaging. It does not necessarily mean that the DVD has been mastered for a 16:9 screen format, so it can't be taken as any indication that the film will display correctly at full screen width on a wide screen TV. You need to look for a statement that the disc will play correctly on a 16:9 screen or that it has been anamorphically mastered.
David Aiken
Follow Ups:
I have a wide screen TV. I own DVDs that are wide screen but not anamorphic and they play as 2:35 or 1:85 (or the other rarer wide screen aspect ratios, what ever the original film was shot in)).
I also have wide screen DVDs trhat are anamorphic (the vast majority)and they play in those same aspect ratios. The difference is the rsolution, the anamorphic discs having much better vertical rsolution.So a wide screen DVD of either type will play as wide screen on either a 4 x 3 or a 16 x 9 display.
As I said, I have some DVDs which are labelled "Wide Screen". The films on these discs have a screen aspect of 2.35:1. The DVDs are mastered in letterbox format for a 4:3 screen . Displayed at full screen width on my 16:9 TV, the picture format is wider than 2.35:1 and the images are stretched in the horizontal plane. The black bars above and below the image are taller than those with an anamorphic 2.35:1 film. Correct film proportions on these discs are restored if they are displayed as a 4:3 program.Off hand, the most interesting example of this phenomenon that I can give are my copies of Halloween and Halloween II. Both are labelled in exactly the same way on the packaging with a banner that says "Wide Screen" at the top of the front cover and are labelled as "Wide Screen 2.35:1" on the back cover. Neither package refers to display screen format anywhere and, looking at the 2 films, one would assume that both are identical in film and display screen format details. Halloween is mastered for a 16:9 display and displays correctly. Halloween II has been mastered for a 4:3 screen and only displays correctly when I set my screen to 4:3 aspect. Viewed at full screen width, everyone looks fatter than they really are and the actual image height is significantly less than the image height of Halloween.
Note that I live in Australia and these are the local PAL release versions of these 2 films so the situation may be different with NTSC copies in the States.
Wide screen labelling obviously refers only to the original film aspect ratio for some releases.
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