Aspect Ratio Question

Having been looking at several BR movies yesterday. Many of the newer and older films say "25g one layer" or "50 g dual layer" on them. Does this generally mean the 25g discs are going to be of lower quality?

Also, most of them say 2:35.1 or 2:40.1 Aspect Ratio as well as saying "widescreen 16x9" on the same disc. So, if they are including a 16x9 version on the same disc as the one that also has the 2:40.1 AP, does this mean by having 2 of the same movies on the same disc that it is going to be lower quality and not as crisp?

It's completely dependent on the film whether it compresses well to 25GB or whether it needs more--it won't necessarily suffer although one can make many arguments why it might: More compression, lower bit rate, reduced audio quality, less features, etc. As of today, something like 46% of all Blu-Ray releases are on 25GB SL.

Although there is some disturbing talk of cropping films to fully fill the 16:9 window that consumers expect, what is usually the case is films are formatted for a 16:9 window, with black bars on the top and bottom to preserve the original aspect ratio of the film within that 16:9 window.

Thanks for explaining that for me. I was beginning to wonder when some people here were mentioning that some Blu-Ray films don't look any better than their regular DVD's. Every time I purchase a movie, I will search this and other forums to make sure the film actually looks fairly good before buying it. I saw "Enter the Dragon" on the HD channel today, and it didn't look any better than my upconverted version of my regular DVD for that movie, but I know it is an old movie.

Thanks for explaining that for me. I was beginning to wonder when some people here were mentioning that some Blu-Ray films don't look any better than their regular DVD's. Every time I purchase a movie, I will search this and other forums to make sure the film actually looks fairly good before buying it. I saw "Enter the Dragon" on the HD channel today, and it didn't look any better than my upconverted version of my regular DVD for that movie, but I know it is an old movie.
On older movies I watch for them to be shown OTA and record them on my HTPC. The quality usually comes out maybe just a bit less than what I've see on Blu or HD DVD, but the files are much smaller, especially after I strip the commercials. True I still have the network logo in the picture, but that does not bother me much. The ability of having them all in the computer to select like a juke box way offsets that for me.

The later movies I will go with HDM when they have quality transfers, but some of them are like you said not that much better than upconverted DVD.

rbinck, is there a link on how to record them OTA? I have a PC and am eager to try it. It sounds like a great idea to me. This is all new to me, but if you know of a link that shows me what I need to do, I would give it a try. I have satellite and lots of good quality HD channels on it.

Also, most of them say 2:35.1 or 2:40.1 Aspect Ratio as well as saying "widescreen 16x9" on the same disc.


i've noticed a lot of my DVD's say "Widescreen version enhanced for 16:9 tv's"; which simply means its in OAR. Underneath that it says "This film is presented in 'widescreen' format. The black bars on the top and bottom of the screen are normal."

i've noticed a lot of my DVD's say "Widescreen version enhanced for 16:9 tv's"; which simply means its in OAR. Underneath that it says "This film is presented in 'widescreen' format. The black bars on the top and bottom of the screen are normal."

No, "Enhanced for 16:9 TV's" actually means the disc is a widescreen film that has been stored in anamorphic (squeezed) format on the disc with the expectation it will be played back on a widescreen TV that will stretch it back to the proper aspect ratio. This approach preserves much more vertical resolution and detail than a letterbox widescreen film, as with letterbox, so much of the active screen area is simply black lines and in order to fill the screen, you must zoom into the image, which further degrades the clarity

No, "Enhanced for 16:9 TV's" actually means the disc is a widescreen film that has been stored in anamorphic (squeezed) format on the disc with the expectation it will be played back on a widescreen TV that will stretch it back to the proper aspect ratio. This approach preserves much more vertical resolution and detail than a letterbox widescreen film, as with letterbox, so much of the active screen area is simply black lines and in order to fill the screen, you must zoom into the image, which further degrades the clarity

For the 16:9 enhanced for TV movies, should I set my DVD player or Blu-Ray player to "auto" instead of "Letterbox" mode?

rbinck, is there a link on how to record them OTA? I have a PC and am eager to try it. It sounds like a great idea to me. This is all new to me, but if you know of a link that shows me what I need to do, I would give it a try. I have satellite and lots of good quality HD channels on it.
You basically need a HTPC which is a PC with a tuner card for receiving and recording programs. They make some ATSC tuners that plug into the USB port and others that are inserted in the PC like any other card.

For a HTPC that does not require a very powerful computer see this: MyHTPC (http://www.highdefinitionblog.com/Pages/MyHTPC.htm)

Then there are some PC already set up for this called Media PCs. I have also a HP 560 that has the 2005 Media Center XP software that combines the tuners with DVD player and a multi-media camera card slots. For more info on the HP see: Two Outstanding HTPC Values (http://www.highdefinitionblog.com/?p=294)

After you get the HTPC set up then the next step would be to get an OTA antenna.

For the 16:9 enhanced for TV movies, should I set my DVD player or Blu-Ray player to "auto" instead of "Letterbox" mode?

Yes. You don't want it set to "Letterbox" as that formats the full, unsqueezed widescreen image to fit into a 4:3 window--it's meant for watching widescreen DVD's on a standard 4:3 TV.

On your DVD player, set the aspect ratio to "16:9" or "Wide" or whatever they call it (if they call it "Auto", then use that)--don't use "Letterbox" or "Pan/Scan" as they are meant for use with non-widescreen 4:3 TV's.

On your 16:9 TV, set the picture mode to "Full", or whatever they call it on your TV.

Bear in mind that this is only for Anamorphic widescreen DVD's (those that say "Enhanced for 16:9 TV's"). If you have any DVD's that are either "Full Screen" or "Letterbox Widescreen", there's nothing you can do to improve them.

"Full Screen" DVD's have been cropped on the sides to fit a 4:3 screen, so the rest of the image is permanently lost--if you want to fill your 16:9 display, all you'll end up doing is stretching them to look fat or zooming in and cutting off the top and bottom.

"Letterbox Widescreen" films have been shrunk down to fit their full width on a 4:3 screen, so detail in the vertical direction is permanently lost. You can zoom your 16:9 display to fill the screen, but the image will be much less sharp and more blocky.

Anamorphic Widescreen DVD's are the only way to go, as they can be set to play either "Full Screen" or "Letterbox Widescreen" on a 4:3 display and in the highest quality Widescreen on a 16:9 display.

Boby and rbinck, I want to thank you both for your wealth of info. All these things are new to me and it has set me in the right direction which I needed. I retire next month and HD is going to be one of my never ending hobbies, especially for Winter. Thanks for bringing so much to t his forum for us newbies without ever belittling us.