Anamorphic Full Frame!

[Riedenschneider]

Can someone explain me how it works and IF it really works?

I only saw this on Anchor Bay DVDs: The Monte Hellman featurette on the Two-Lane Blacktop DVD
as well as the interviews on Companeros and Keoma are in anamorphic full frame!

How does that work? Does it truly render a better picture and if so,
why is Anchor Bay the only one who makes use of this?


Left: Squeezed/anamorphic fullframe -------------- Right: Unsqueezed/enhanced fullframe

[tripps]

This confuses me as well. What's the point? On 4:3 TVs, the damned thing is unecessarily window-boxed... black bars all over the place. Even with a 16:9 TV, you're actually getting *fewer* lines of rez than if the image were just non-anamorphic 4:3 because it is including black side-bars in the frame.

Seems like they're just trying to be nice to the vast minority of people who own 1) 16:9 TVs, 2) have 16:9 TVs that don't automatically switch aspect ratios when playing non-anamorphic 4:3 DVDs.

[downhuman]

Originally posted by tripps
This confuses me as well. What's the point? On 4:3 TVs, the damned thing is unecessarily window-boxed... black bars all over the place. Even with a 16:9 TV, you're actually getting *fewer* lines of rez than if the image were just non-anamorphic 4:3 because it is including black side-bars in the frame.

Seems like they're just trying to be nice to the vast minority of people who own 1) 16:9 TVs, 2) have 16:9 TVs that don't automatically switch aspect ratios when playing non-anamorphic 4:3 DVDs.

You're right. Someone didn't think this through, at all.

[tomdkat]

The picture on the left looks like anamorphic material with my 16:9 TV in 4:3 mode and my DVD player in 16:9 mode, except the bars I get are grey.

Are you viewing this on a 16:9 TV? If so, how does the image look in "Full" mode?

Also, why would you swtich to some mode *other* than "Full" for anamorphic material?

Peace.....

[tomdkat]

Originally posted by tripps
2) have 16:9 TVs that don't automatically switch aspect ratios when playing non-anamorphic 4:3 DVDs.

Ummm.... I don't think there are any HDTVs that do what you state. There a a LOT of HDTVs (mainly older ones) that lock in Full mode when a progressive signal is detected, which does not imply detection of the aspect ratio of that progressive image. On 4:3 TVs that do the "squeeze" trick, I'm sure they "kick" into "16:9" mode when an anamorphic signal is detected and probably not based on the aspect ratio of that anamorphic material.

Secondly, if you own a 16:9 TV, why would you want the TV to change video modes based on the aspect ratio of the material? My Toshiba 57HX81 has 5 video modes, 4 of which I use for non=anamorphic material. If I watch a 4:3 DVD should the TV switch to 4:3 mode automatically? Or should it switch to a mode I configure it to switch to? I'm not sure what behavior would be deemed the most appropriate since every HDTV owner would probably want some different behavior.

Peace.....

[Riedenschneider]

Originally posted by tomdkat
The picture on the left looks like anamorphic material with my 16:9 TV in 4:3 mode and my DVD player in 16:9 mode, except the bars I get are grey.

Yes, that's what it is (only my bars are black)

Also, why would you swtich to some mode *other* than "Full" for anamorphic material?

I wouldn't, I'm just asking... well, what I'm asking above: (How does that work? Does it truly render a better picture and if so, why is Anchor Bay the only one who makes use of this?)

Here is how it looks on my 16:9. Sorry for the horrible quality...

1: Player 16:9, TV 4:3

[Riedenschneider]

2: Player 16:9, TV 16:9