Confused over 16 x 9 / 2.4:1 statement

[Coup27]

Hi,

On the back of a typical Blu-ray or DVD it says something like "16 x 9 / 2.4:1".

This suggests you can watch the video in either 16x9 or 2.4:1 format but I can't see any control on my Blu-ray player to switch formats.

Am I misunderstanding what this means? Obviously, I am trying to watch DVD's and Blu-ray's without black bars top and bottom.

Thanks.

 

[Ichinisan]

Hi,

On the back of a typical Blu-ray or DVD it says something like "16 x 9 / 2.4:1".

This suggests you can watch the video in either 16x9 or 2.4:1 format but I can't see any control on my Blu-ray player to switch formats.

Am I misunderstanding what this means? Obviously, I am trying to watch DVD's and Blu-ray's without black bars top and bottom.

Thanks.

Maybe they are saying the original aspect ratio is cinema aspect - and the OAR is letterboxed slightly to fit a 16:9 screen without chopping a bit of picture from the sides.

 

[Coup27]

I think you are right. I had another play with the settings on my Blu-ray player and there is the ability to zoom in (a fixed amount, 2x). This removes the top and bottom letterboxes but chops off some of the sides of the picture. You can move the rectangle so you could view all of the left side of the picture and lose more of the right side and vice versa.

Thanks for your help.

 

[FaaR]

Am I misunderstanding what this means? Obviously, I am trying to watch DVD's and Blu-ray's without black bars top and bottom.

16:9 ratio is less than 1.8:1, so obviously much narrower ratio than the movie's 2.4:1. If you want to see the movie without black bars top and bottom you would - as you discovered - lose large chunks of the picture off each side.

Unfortunately with watching most movie formats on a "widescreen" TV, there's no having cake and eating it too!

 

[BarkingGhostar]

One of the benefits of using a projector and an anamorphic lens. The projector uses 100% of its imager by stretching the imaging vertically and the anamorphic lens stretches horizontally to restore the OAR. Only downside is that anamorphic lenses can be as expensive or more than what you paid for the projector that is capable of anamorphic presentation.