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All Forums > Tech Talk > Tech Talk Forum Page 50 > Question about aspect ratio & a "squashed" picture
AuthorPost
ThighMaster
Member


169 Posts
1/02
Posted - Apr 17 2005 : 11:52PM
Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can answer this for me. I just bought "Hardcore Paradise" (it's a Wicked Pictures release), and the picture looks like it's "squashed." You know, like it WANTS to be on a widescreen TV, but the picture was compressed vertically to fit a standard television. It looks funny, and the actors are too skinny-looking.

Does anyone know what's up with this? There's no "set-up" option on the disc to fix it. I thought that all widescreen presentations automatically become letterboxed when played on a traditional screen. Is this something new that Wicked Pictures is doing to all their movies these days? Because if it is, I certainly won't be buying any of their DVDs until I get a widescreen TV!

Thanks in advance for any info.

Flash All-Star Supporter
Golden Age Classic

11018 Posts
5/01
Posted - Apr 18 2005 : 12:25AM
Sounds like it might be an anamorphic disc and you have your DVD player set to fit the screen. I'd check your DVD player settings (take out all discs and access the player menus). Make sure you have your television set right and how anamorphic discs are handled.

I could be wrong I've never seen the disc but that is a likely fix.

DeeDee
Member

Hamburg, Germany
289 Posts
10/04
Posted - Apr 18 2005 : 9:55PM
Yes, probably a problem with the set-up. I had this with a couple of discs, and I solved the problem for all of them by playing around with the set-up.
Flash All-Star Supporter
Golden Age Classic

11018 Posts
5/01
Posted - Apr 18 2005 : 10:47PM
BTW: When I said television set right, I mean in the DVD player set-up as if you have a 4x3 unit set as a 16x9 unit it will result with a squashed picture.
ThighMaster
Member

169 Posts
1/02
Posted - Apr 19 2005 : 1:35AM
Okay, I played around with the settings, but it didn't help. I set it to "letterbox," and still got a full-screen, squashed picture. Set it to "widescreen," and got the same result. For the record, it's been set to full screen PS the whole time, and I haven't had this problem with any other discs... they automatically come up as letterboxed. I got the same result with two different DVD players.

Thanks anyway for the help! I'm not really thrilled with the movie itself, but if I was, I might have pursued it further. I'm more concerned with whether all the new Wicked DVDs are like this, because I generally enjoy their products.

 
Kperv
The Cuddler

*struck
(She slipped)

1818 Posts
1/04
Posted - Apr 19 2005 : 5:16AM
Perhaps your TV's remote has a Widescreen button you can use to toggle between 4x3 and 16x9.
Bill All-Star Supporter
All-Star Member

5334 Posts
6/00
Posted - Apr 20 2005 : 7:32PM
Wow. This is the first DVD that I've ever seen to attempt to use the 4:3 Pan & Scan vs 4:3 Letterbox feature on DVD players. I think that I'm going to have to blame this one on your DVD player. Not the disc.

I rented this disc this evening. I first tried the disc in an older Toshiba DVD player that I have connected to a 4:3 in my guest room. The DVD player is setup as 4:3 P&S. I saw the same thing that you do.

Then I put the disc into the DVD drive in my computer. It played back as an anamorphic widescreen disc.

Then I put the disc into a relatively new Panasonic DVD player that is connected to a 16:9 HDTV. When I played it the first time, it played like an anamorphic widescreen disc should. Then I set the DVD player to 4:3 P&S. When I played the disc this time, it was zoomed on the sides. In the opening credits, the last name of one of the performers was cut in half on the right side of the screen. I then set the DVD player to 4:3 Letterbox and and played it again. This time, there were black bars on top & bottom.

I repeated the test in a Yamakawa NTSC/PAL DVD player connected to the same TV, with identical results.

I then took the DVD back to the first player and set it to 4:3 Letterbox. It played exactly like it did the first time.

So, it appears that my both Toshiba and your DVD player are having a problem with the P&S/Letterbox flags.

Like I said, this is the first DVD that I've ever seen with this "feature".

ThighMaster
Member

169 Posts
1/02
Posted - Apr 21 2005 : 3:32PM
Wow, thanks for doing all that research!

The results you got are very interesting... I certainly hope they're not making all their new discs like that, since I'm stuck with somewhat old equipment.

All Forums > Tech Talk > Tech Talk Forum Page 50Question about aspect ratio & a "squashed" picture

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