HDTV Almanac - Reader Question: Ban the Black Bars?

[alfredpoor]

Q: I was visiting someone with a high definition TV. When they play back DVDs (normal ones, not Blu-ray), the images were letterboxed with black stripes on the top and bottom of the screen. What gives? I expect letterboxing on a square CRT but not on a widescreen HDTV. The TV plays HD broadcast [...]

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[regman]

If you are watching 4:3 content, and assuming that your set allows "jusitified' mode", give that a try. It only stretches the picture edges so the distortion is minimized.

[alfredpoor]

Regman, that mode may work for some people, but it disturbs the heck out of me. It's like watching a movie through a fish-eye lens. On street scenes, bizarrely-stretched cars flow in from the sides where they become normal looking, only to turn into a Dali-esque melting object as it flows out the other edge. And close-up conversations between two actors' faces on either side of the screen would remind me of certain personal experiences in the late 60s and early 70s if I could only remember them.

Like I said, it may work fine for others, and I think that's great, but it doesn't work for me at all.

Alfred

[canjack54]

We have got use to periodically watching some movies from non HD channels in letterbox format, but it has always been my understanding that it was better for my TV (plasma) to have grey bars rather than black bars. Am I right about this ?

[alfredpoor]

Plasma screens used to be susceptible to "burn in" where the phosphors would age differently, leaving a permanent after-image. Most current plasma sets are less prone to permanent damage, though "image persistance" can still be a problem and take hours to fade. One strategy against this problem is to not leave a fixed location completely "on" or "off". The gray bars used in plasma screen letterboxing is designed to put some image at the edges, to mitigate any image persistance problems. I don't have first-hand experience that can tell me whether this makes a substantial difference or not.

Alfred

[akirby]

I still don't understand why those black bars bother people so much. When I had a 4:3 tv I preferred watching movies in letterbox.

Then again, my wife would rather use the TV speakers than the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound setup. Go figure......

[alfredpoor]

I've often heard people tell me directly that they don't like to see a blank part on the big screen that they bought. If they paid for the whole thing, they want to use the whole thing. The impact on image quality is secondary; the stretching "doesn't look that bad".

It makes me crazy to hear stuff like that, but I've learned not to argue. I smile and say "That's nice."

Alfred

[ccclvib]

I've often heard people tell me directly that they don't like to see a blank part on the big screen that they bought. If they paid for the whole thing, they want to use the whole thing. The impact on image quality is secondary; the stretching "doesn't look that bad".

It makes me crazy to hear stuff like that, but I've learned not to argue. I smile and say "That's nice."

I'm there! Everyone in my (extended) family, as well as my neighbors insist the only way to watch HD is in "full screen mode", no matter what the actual format of the picture. I've tried to reset the picture on a 4x3 to have it look at least a little normal, but the black bars cause deep intake of breath. It's almost as if they think, regardless of how bad the people, background look, it's just wrong to have black bars. So... I gave up as well.

Now, though, I'm being driven around the bend by another problem. My (new) Toshiba BDX2000 Blu-Ray player also insists on filling the screen with 4x3 picture format. Actually, it looks like it expands the picture in both directions until the sides reach the side of the display, which keeps proportions of what you see on the screen more-or-less correct. But it cuts off the top and bottom of the picture! Nothing I can do. I called Toshiba support almost immediately after having the problem on to find it's a "known issue" with no target to fix it. Interestingly, a CinemaScope format picture is handled correctly with black bars top and bottom. I keep looking on the Toshiba web site for firmware updates for my player, but so far none.

[akirby]

Glad I bought a second PS3 for my second Blu-Ray player.

[stevekaden]

I wonder how much complaining there will be when we get Cinemascope wide TVs and a lot of the images are only 16x9. Maybe with OLEDs, we can roll the screen up that we don't need.