Why is this?

[skinner05]

When watching some dvd's, why is there black blocks in the top quarter of the screen and bottom quarter of the screen, and the picture only fills the middle half of the screen. The new batman for instance of my 37in panasonic does this and if i stretch it through aspect ratio to zoom 1, it fills the screen but everything just looks wrong and out of proportion. Why are they made to only fill a small part of the screen?

[Gun]

Cinema screens are much wider than 16:9 widescreen, not sure on the exact ratio though.

[Eric Mc]

Films are made to suit cinema screens, not TV screens. For the last ten years or so, TV has been gradually moving away from the old standard TV screen ratio (4:3) to wider ratios, 16:9 being the widest.

As has been said, even 16:9 may not be wide enough for some films - and not just new ones. For instance, super wide formats first came into use in the 1950s with Cinemascope, Cinerama and Vistavision.

[Racefan_uk]

Also, I think some of the scenes in Batman Dark Knight were filmed for IMAX release, so that won't help certain parts of it to look even worse!

Is it on all movies you watch, or just this one?

[LotusACBC]

I have noticed this as well, personally I dislike it. Its stupid and annoying. I bought a big screen TV for a reason, and yet every movie I want to actually sit down and watch is half the size.

[paddyhasneeds]

LotusACBC said:

I have noticed this as well, personally I dislike it. Its stupid and annoying. I bought a big screen TV for a reason, and yet every movie I want to actually sit down and watch is half the size.

I'd expect you have a zoom button on the TV to change aspect ratio and zoom in whilst chopping off some of the sides?

Reminds me of a few years back on Watchdog with people complaining that they'd purchased the Widescreen Titanic DVD and how they'd been ripped off because of the black bars.

[davido140]

Personally I'd rather have it in its original format, if its too small get a bigger telly.

Some movies really miss-out if they are "chopped" at the sides to fill the screen.

[LotusACBC]

paddyhasneeds said:

LotusACBC said:

I have noticed this as well, personally I dislike it. Its stupid and annoying. I bought a big screen TV for a reason, and yet every movie I want to actually sit down and watch is half the size.

I'd expect you have a zoom button on the TV to change aspect ratio and zoom in whilst chopping off some of the sides?

Reminds me of a few years back on Watchdog with people complaining that they'd purchased the Widescreen Titanic DVD and how they'd been ripped off because of the black bars.

I do have the zoom feature... will that cure it? I never thought about using it.

[gothmog]

There is no cure, that is how it is

Decent explanation here:
http://www.widescreen.org/widescreen.shtml

To lose the bars you have to lose some picture. It's a square peg into a round hole scenario.

[LotusACBC]

gothmog said:

There is no cure, that is how it is

Decent explanation here:
http://www.widescreen.org/widescreen.shtml

To lose the bars you have to lose some picture. It's a square peg into a round hole scenario.

Yes but we gain more of the sideshots, who cares. Id rather have a bigger picture. but thats just me