Just recently had to purchase a new tv recorder due to previous one packing up. With the new one a blue ray player was included, imagine my joy when i played Ladies & gentlemen and it was like watching a different concert picture wise.

Based on this i brought my first blue ray of sweet summer sun but for some reason its like watching through a letter box as there is two black lines on the top and bottom.

I was so disappointed on watching this and have tried everything to get a full screen but no joy.

Are most blue rays dvds like this?

Any advice or info, thanks.

Have you tried adjusting the View mode on your TV?

Different films are sometimes filmed in different aspect ratios.

Not sure why that is but it can be annoying.

You can either adjust the ratio on your TV, like DEmerson suggested, essentially 'zooming in' but that will crop off the edges of the picture, or depending the setting, it stretches it to fit, causing a picture distortion (Mick looks fat!).

OR, you just live with the black bands...a first world problem of the highest order.

If you use certain high-grade Blu-ray Disc players,they give you MUCH better control over the "Zoom" and aspect ratios.

For example,with most "mass market" ( Walmart , Best Buy etc. ) Blu-ray players,you can choose from Zoom modes of 1x = 100% ( no Zoom ) OR 2x = 200% OR 4x = 400% .... maybe if you're lucky 1.5x = 150% .

This causes the horrible distortion that the previous poster was talking about.

Certain high-grade Blu-ray Disc players allow you fine control over the zoom and aspect ratios. I have an Onkyo BD-SP308 Blu-ray Disc player which allows the "Zoom" to be set at 100% ( no Zoom ) or 101% or 102% or 103% or 104% etc. .... all of the way up to at least 200% .

I believe that Oppo and Cambridge Audio Azur Blu-ray players also offer a similar feature.

This allows you to get rid of the black bars (which are not good for your TV set .... especially plasma and CRT) with MINIMAL distortion of the image.

The optimal setting that I usually use to get rid of the black bars with no real noticable distortion is .... no zoom with the TV set itself and the Blu-ray disc player zoomed to somewhere around 120 % .

@odean73, your bluray player is fine n dandy. Sweet Summer Sun was filmed in cinematic resolution 2:39:1, instead of 16:9. For anyone curious about that aspect ratio just watch the trailer on a standard 16:9 widescreen display and you'll see the black bars across the top and bottom...





There was a debate a while back about that resolution among industry trendsetters and everyone agreed to NOT make it the standard. Our TVs would end up being super wide and it would only benefit a few particular movies/projects, like Sweet Summer Sun.

Unfortunately SSS is filmed in a hyper-cinematic resolution but edited like a 12-year-old kid who can't pay attention to anything for more than 1 second.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-05 02:38 by flacnvinyl.

Good explanation Drake, thanks

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Keep On Rolling

Thanks for all the replies.

Have tried most things on dvd and yet to try the tv settings, still a few things to try, just need the Mrs to go out for an hour or so Haha

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odean73
just need the Mrs to go out for an hour or so Haha

Easy, give her your creditcard and tell her she can go shopping

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Keep On Rolling

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Rolling Hansie

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odean73
just need the Mrs to go out for an hour or so Haha

Easy, give her your creditcard and tell her she can go shopping

Not so easy, she earns more money than me.><

LOL odean

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Keep On Rolling

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flacnvinyl
@odean73, your bluray player is fine n dandy. Sweet Summer Sun was filmed in cinematic resolution 1.77:1, instead of 16:9. For anyone curious about that aspect ratio just watch the trailer on a standard 16:9 widescreen display and you'll see the black bars across the top and bottom...
.

I don't know if you are referring to my post or not but,my point was that some Blu-ray players are better than others at getting rid of the black bars to fill the 16 : 9 screen with minimal cropping , resolution reduction and distortion of the image .

Since he dislikes the black bars,his Blu-ray player may or may not be fine n dandy . He hasn't stated which one he is using.

Some machines offer no zoom control at all,some offer limited zoom modes which horribly crop and distort the image,and others offer fine control over the degree of zoom with multiple zoom modes.

Anyway,not to be a wise guy but 1:77:1 EQUALS 16:9 .

The information that I could find on the "Sweet Summer Sun" Blu-ray disc release states that it was filmed as 2:39:1 and then converted to 2:35:1 for the Blu-ray release .

The cinematic aspect ratios are 2:39:1 and 2:40:1 as well as 2:35:1 and 1:85:1 .

Any of the four cinematic aspect ratios listed above will produce black bars when displayed natively on a 16:9 screen. The way to avoid this is to use the zoom modes of the Blu-ray player if it has any at all. The Blu-ray players that I mentioned in my above post will do a better job of this than any of the television's zoom modes (sometimes called picture size or aspect adjust modes) .

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Winning Ugly VXII

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flacnvinyl
@odean73, your bluray player is fine n dandy. Sweet Summer Sun was filmed in cinematic resolution 1.77:1, instead of 16:9. For anyone curious about that aspect ratio just watch the trailer on a standard 16:9 widescreen display and you'll see the black bars across the top and bottom...
.

I don't know if you are referring to my post or not but,my point was that some Blu-ray players are better than others at getting rid of the black bars to fill the 16 : 9 screen with minimal cropping , resolution reduction and distortion of the image .

Since he dislikes the black bars,his Blu-ray player may or may not be fine n dandy . He hasn't stated which one he is using.

Some machines offer no zoom control at all,some offer limited zoom modes which horribly crop and distort the image,and others offer fine control over the degree of zoom with multiple zoom modes.

Anyway,not to be a wise guy but 1:77:1 EQUALS 16:9 .

The information that I could find on the "Sweet Summer Sun" Blu-ray disc release states that it was filmed as 2:39:1 and then converted to 2:35:1 for the Blu-ray release .

The cinematic aspect ratios are 2:39:1 and 2:40:1 as well as 2:35:1 and 1:85:1 .

Any of the four cinematic aspect ratios listed above will produce black bars when displayed natively on a 16:9 screen. The way to avoid this is to use the zoom modes of the Blu-ray player if it has any at all. The Blu-ray players that I mentioned in my above post will do a better job of this than any of the television's zoom modes (sometimes called picture size or aspect adjust modes) .

I pasted the wrong ratio. Fixed!

As someone who produces video for a living, I am a fan of watching movies in the original intended format, including cinematic ratios which cause black bars on 16:9 screens. There is nothing more terrible than TNT or any other tv station taking wide screen content and zooming/cropping (pan n scan) and thus removing all the information on the sides of the screen!

Zooming in on the 2:39:1 image just removes detail. Wide shots are less wide etc.. I say bring on the black bars!

Personally I would love to have a cinema resolution LCD display at home but I know that the vast majority of content I consume is 1080p or 4k... both of which are TYPICALLY still 16:9 aspect ratio. I would love to play Halo with that wide field of view!

Maybe the next Stones concert film should be Oculus Rift compatible or at least have head tracking....

video: [youtu.be]

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flacnvinyl

As someone who produces video for a living, I am a fan of watching movies in the original intended format, including cinematic ratios which cause black bars on 16:9 screens. There is nothing more terrible than TNT or any other tv station taking wide screen content and zooming/cropping (pan n scan) and thus removing all the information on the sides of the screen!

Once again thanks for all the info.

My blue ray player is a Samsung, I cant see any zoom buttons on the remote, but thinking about this I will give it a try on my other dvd player and see what happens.

At this moment of time I am thinking its best just to get a normal dvd and play it on the blue ray machine and this is after ordering the Hampton 81 on blue ray.

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odean73
Once again thanks for all the info.

My blue ray player is a Samsung, I cant see any zoom buttons on the remote, but thinking about this I will give it a try on my other dvd player and see what happens.

At this moment of time I am thinking its best just to get a normal dvd and play it on the blue ray machine and this is after ordering the Hampton 81 on blue ray.

Don't forget that sound quality may also be a consideration. For the extra money I feel that it's better to get the Blu Ray.

My complaint is that I've ordered the vinyl edition that comes packaged with the DVD, NOT Blu Ray!

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flacnvinyl
@odean73, your bluray player is fine n dandy. Sweet Summer Sun was filmed in cinematic resolution 2:39:1, instead of 16:9. For anyone curious about that aspect ratio just watch the trailer on a standard 16:9 widescreen display and you'll see the black bars across the top and bottom...





There was a debate a while back about that resolution among industry trendsetters and everyone agreed to NOT make it the standard. Our TVs would end up being super wide and it would only benefit a few particular movies/projects, like Sweet Summer Sun.

Unfortunately SSS is filmed in a hyper-cinematic resolution but edited like a 12-year-old kid who can't pay attention to anything for more than 1 second.

about the editing. it was abysmal. that & the ungodly amount of crowd shots. really don't care about seeing the crowd. would much rather see the band.

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treaclefingers

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odean73
Once again thanks for all the info.

My blue ray player is a Samsung, I cant see any zoom buttons on the remote, but thinking about this I will give it a try on my other dvd player and see what happens.

At this moment of time I am thinking its best just to get a normal dvd and play it on the blue ray machine and this is after ordering the Hampton 81 on blue ray.

Don't forget that sound quality may also be a consideration. For the extra money I feel that it's better to get the Blu Ray.

My complaint is that I've ordered the vinyl edition that comes packaged with the DVD, NOT Blu Ray!

Tried the normal dvd player for the blue ray dvd and its not accepting it, the bad disk comes up i take this is normal?

Will have to listen out for the sound difference, thanks.

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odean73

Tried the normal dvd player for the blue ray and its not accepting it, the bad disk comes up i take this is normal?

Yes, this is absolutely normal.

A DVD-Player cannot play a Blu-ray Disc. On the other hand, Blu-ray Player are mostly downwards compatible and can also play DVDs and CDs.

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crholmstrom






Unfortunately SSS is filmed in a hyper-cinematic resolution but edited like a 12-year-old kid who can't pay attention to anything for more than 1 second.

about the editing. it was abysmal. that & the ungodly amount of crowd shots. really don't care about seeing the crowd. would much rather see the band.[/quote]

Yeah it's pretty bad and it reminds of the way German "directors" shoot the Rock Am Ring festival year after year.

Consatnt silly camera moves and a silly epileptic editing that make you feel like closing your eyes and concentrate on the music

Mick why did you fall prey to "kraut rock" after all these years?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014-10-05 23:11 by dcba.

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Irix

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odean73

Tried the normal dvd player for the blue ray and its not accepting it, the bad disk comes up i take this is normal?

Yes, this is absolutely normal.

A DVD-Player cannot play a Blu-ray Disc. On the other hand, Blu-ray Player are mostly downwards compatible and can also play DVDs and CDs.

Thanks for the info.

A couple of options to avoid the black bars :

21:9 Monitor ( 34 inch Display ) .......... * [www.lg.com] * ( 21:9 = roughly somwhere in between 2:33:1 and 2:37:1 )

+

2:35:1 Projector Screen .......... * [www.htdepot.com] * ( Requires Appropriate Projector )

+

21:9 Television ( 58 inch Display ) ............... * [www.ebay.co.uk] *


The most inexpensive decent Blu-ray player with SA-CD playback and a Zoom function is probably the Yamaha BD-S677 although I do not know how well or how PRECISELY it can zoom images and video playback. The price is $ 255 in the U.S. and around 259 pounds in Europe. :

* ( U.S. ) * [www.bhphotovideo.com] *

&

* ( Europe ) * [www.gear4music.com] *

If you consider going this route,I would strongly recommend first looking up its user manual on the internet to see if it specifies how many degrees of zoom or aspect ratio adjustment that it is capable of. The more,the better.

Otherwise,the Oppo Blu-ray players are a solid option with MANY high-end features including multiple precise zoom modes ..... options to adjust the aspect ratio. They start at $ 499 ( for the BDP-103 ) . :

* [www.oppodigital.com] *

+

* [www.oppodigital.com] *

+

* [www.oppodigital.co.uk] ( U.K. ) *

Here is an article with pictures indicating what various content will look like on 21:9 , 16:9 , and the old 4:3 displays,respectively ........... when displayed natively ........ prior to or without any adjustment being applied. :


* [www.rtings.com] *

Apologies for bringing this topic up again, but i was just thinking would you get a full screen on a normal film < say like the deer hunter or the god father films > dvds?

somewhere in these posts it might already be answered.