I am considering an upgrade from DVD to Blue-ray, and one reason is the picture size: One of the frustrations of DVD picture is that even with most wide-screen movies, the entire screen is seldom used - leaving either black bands at the top and bottom, or if zoomed, cropping off parts of the picture. Does Blue-ray pictures remedy this by fitting the picture to the entire screen without bands or cropping? Please advise.
You just need a bigger display. If they zoomed in, obviously they will have to cut a lot of the original picture. Think about it. If you don't mind that, then use the zoom function on the tv.
In addition to what Josten said, you need to understand that a 16:9 TV display is the correct format for HD Video content and not necessarily film-shot content, so there are many films shot in aspect ratios that don't fit perfectly into your TV display. You didn't mention your current setup, but if you have any DVD player connected to a TV with S-Video or RCA cables, you will get an image sent in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and any widescreen content will be constrained within this small box, even on a 16:9 TV and it will have black bars all around.
My old Sony DVD player is connected to a Denon receiver using component video. The Denon is connected to the Hitachi plasma HDTV using HDMI. I understand that many movies are made in 2.4:1 aspect ratio, while HDTV is 1.8:1. My question was if upgrading to Blue-ray that will allow HDMI connection from DVD player to receiver will improve the aspect ratio - or will the bars still show for the movies with 2.4:1 aspect ratio? Thanks.
movies are in the same anamorphic widescreen on both bluray and dvd. Its whatever aspect the director releases it in, usually anamorphic. Sorry but no fix to your "problem"
I had a family member ask me about this subject a couple years ago. My cousin was adamant that the HD PQ was inferior since it did not address this issue, so therefore, he would not 'waste his money' on such a system. If you consider the additional improvements (increased resolution & DD surround) vs watching the analog content on the 4:3 boob tube, it quickly becomes a silly argument, eh?
I suggest you peruse the following web sites to get a better handle on the various aspect ratios, etc. It can be extremely helpful to put it all in perspective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)
*the terms under 'see also' are very useful.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/page2.html#demos
-Pedro
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