OAR question

[Dvlos]

I can find many explanations for OAR vs Fullscreen, what the different dimensions are (Academy and Panavision formats), what I can't find an answer on and have always want to know is, what does "anamorphic" mean.. some of my DVDs say 2.35:1 This movie is presented in it's original format.

Others say 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen.

Also some OTHERS say "Enhanced for 16x9" viewing.

I never understood this at all, or what the differences are. Are they all the same and just labeled differently? IN other words 2.35:1 is just that and although some say "Enhanced" or "Anamorphic" it's the same thing anyway?

 

[bbqman]

Dvllos - here is a piece that might help you. http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/index.html

 

[Dvlos]

Ah... good explanation, I guess I already knew these just confused by the DVD packaging, Anamorphic is "Enhanced for 16x9" and much better for widescreen TVs than "Letterbox Format" analog style transfer. Good link bbgman.

 

[slacker9876]

Thanks for the info BBGMAN, I have often wondered this myself and just never thought to ask.

 

[DarrellP]

Basically you get the entire resolution of your TV using the image.

Think of a 4:3 TV that displays a widescreen image with black bars top and bottom. A TV that cannot utilize the "Enhanced" or Anamorphic part of a DVD will use some of it's scanning lines in the black area, wasting resolution. If you have a TV that will not support the enhanced mode, then your DVD player must be set accordingly and it will insert the black bars for you.

A TV that can use the Anamorphic feature will "squeeze" the scan lines into the picture area, making the gap between the scan lines smaller, giving an "effective" higher resolution on that 4:3 set since it is using all of the scan lines in the picture area and not wasting them on the black bars.

A movie that is NOT anamorphic will place the black bars into the picture area, reducing the effective resolution of the image, then no matter what type of display you have, you are wasting image space on the black bars since they are encoded as part of the film.

Digital TV's do it automatically, squeezing the image back down to it's "natural" size. A good example of a non-anamorphic DVD is the so called "Collector's" Edition of The Thing. Pissed me off when I bought it, the picture is NOT anamorphic and looks like crap.