DVDs

[Fischerbot]

First of all I am a foreign exchange student and I live since about 3 Monts in Texas.

Now my question is: I found out that you can buy here fullscreen and widecreen movies. But all the widescreen movies i bought are not widescreen! they have the black .....(dont know the word) on bothem and on top but they are to samll! for example: murder by nummbers, resident evil and shallow hal. Can you buy here real widescreen editions or is this my destiny to live at a place like this?

[theReal]

"widescreen" usually means cinemascope, so you will have very big black bars at the top and bottom. You will even have black bars on a 16:9 tv screen with widescreen movies.

Fullscreen means it is adapted for 4:3 tv - video fanatics hate it, but most other people seem to like it better because there are no black bars.


But all the widescreen movies i bought are not widescreen!They are indeed very wide. "Wide" in German is "breit" :D

[jggimi]

"Too small."

My first thought was, "Perhaps the TV is too small?" Is the TV you're used to at home significantly larger?

Second thought, "Perhaps the DVD player's aspect ratio setting is incorrect?" Do the pictures look too short or too long? Are circles (wheels, clocks) circles, or are they ovals? The DVD player must be told the relative size of the TV screen you are using; 4:3 for most TVs -- this is the same relative shape as a PC monitor. Tell the DVD player to use 16:9 only if it is connected to an expensive TV with a screen that is much wider than it is tall.

Third thought, "Poor choice of connection between player and TV?" There are 4 different ways to get an NTSC video signal to an analog TV. Which you choose should be based on the connections available on the player and TV. In descending quality order, they are 1) Component video -- three RCA phono plugs; 2) S-Video -- a connector that looks like a PS/2 mouse plug; 3) Composite video -- one RCA phono plug; 4) RF -- coaxial cable set to a TV broadcast frequency, such as Channel 3 or 4.

Fourth thought, "Poor quality phono cable." RCA phono plugs should be gold plated, and thick cables. It can make a significant difference.

Fifth thought, "PAL might really be better than NTSC." If you visit a store that sells DVD players and TVs, see if widescreen discs appear "too small" on their TVs. If so, then sell your discs, player, and TV, and wait until you go home to watch TV. Or just repeat the phrase, "Everything's bigger in Texas" over and over, until you believe it.

Good luck!

[Fischerbot]

thanks for your answer I appreciate.

Well know I know the word i didn't know: black bars(was not to hard)

And yes, TEXAS is big, bigger, biggest! You will never see so big trucks like here in Switzerland. But I have to say that the indesign is very bad. Maby the SUVs and the trucks luck good from outside, but inside they are only plastic, cheap and ugly! But I like the refill in the restaurants and the fastfood tastes better here.

Is the school food always that bad? I go to a small school, about 200 students and we have every day hamburger and french fries. EVERY DAY! and thats sucks :(

Why have American NTSC and Europen PAL? and what is the difference beteen them? Do I have to chanche something if I encode NTSC and not PAL?

I usually work with:

Smart Ripper
DVD2AVI
Gordian Knot (Bitrate)
Virtual Dub (encode)
And an Audio tool, cant remember which one. I forgot a lot since I am here in America!

What do you think about ogg? I would like to use it because it needs not that much space on same quality like mp3.

[Ookami]

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

http://www.doom9.de/faqs-ger.htm

etc.

[jggimi]

Black bars are also called "Letterboxing."

NTSC and PAL only have meaning for TV, encoding from either will still create an .avi file usable worldwide. The difference will be .avi files from PAL will have 25 fps, and .avi files from NTSC will be either 23.976 or 29.97 fps.

Asking why one country uses PAL or NTSC is like asking why you need plug converters and/or transformers for power, going from country to country. Or, instead, why is every phone plug different in every country you go to in Europe?

[Ambush]

Hmm... I knew about the difference between PAL % NTSC formats, but what about the differing PAL and NTSC "versions," such as I/PAL and B/PAL.

By the way, Fischerbot, if you want to see big trucks, come to the Australian outback: we have "Road Trains" consisting of a long-wheelbase prime mover and up to six trailers.

[theReal]

we have "Road Trains" consisting of a long-wheelbase prime mover and up to six trailers.Try to drive one of those through the Swiss Alps ;) :D

[Emp3r0r]

The movies you stated are all widescreen. Widescreen can mean 2.35 to 1 or 1.78 to 1 here in the US. Movies like Lord of the Rings and Matrix have 2.35, or big black bars that still show up as very small black bars on 16:9 TV's. Movies like Blade2 are still widescreen, they just have very small black bars and fill up the whole screen on a 16:9 TV. When you preview a 1.78 movie in DVD2AVI it may appear to be 4:3 even though it isn't because DVD2AVI doesn't compress height resolution for anamorphic material. Hope this explains it.

[Fischerbot]

Yes I saw that too, but when I looked on the back of a DVD in Switzerland witch resolution the movie is, it always showed me 2.35:1. Or when I downloaded movies from the internet, they where all 2.35:1 movies exapt for one or two. Here the most of the DVDs are 1.78:1. Do they chanche the resolution of the movie here. Like they do it on the Full Screen movies.


I hope I dont confuse yall

[Emp3r0r]

Well, I've never seen a DVD from a different region than region 1 but I'm assuming that if I bought a DVD from a different region, it should still have the same AR regardless of wether it is PAL or NTSC... but I'm most likely wrong.

[jggimi]

They sometimes differ. Sometimes the theatrical aspect ratio is different from the negative, and sometimes the aspect ratios are altered for one or more DVDs. Most often they are the same. Here's an example from Fisherbot's list of DVDs... (source - IMDB)

Shallow Hal:

Film negative - 35mm
Film print - 35mm
Cinematographic process - Super 35
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Region 1 DVD:

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9 PAR)

Region 2 DVD:

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9 PAR)