Up converted standard dvds don't fill my screen

[waltinvt]

Although my A-3 seems to do a great job with HD-DVDs, with some commercial standard dvds and (so far) all my home burned dvds, the video will not fill the screen of my 16:9 HDTV. Instead it shows a wide-screen but pillar / letter boxed picture - black around all 4 sides.

I burn my dvds on a Panasonic E-85 from HD channels with my 622 via S-Video and these dvds look great - usually as good as regular commercial dvds. They even anamorphically fill my tv screen fine when played from either the recorder or a regular dvd player, so I don't understand what the problem is on the A-3. Has anyone else had this problem?

As yet I have not done a firmware upgrade on the A-3. Does anyone know what HD-A3-1100U.ISO does?

 

[berck]

I suspect that the image isn't anamorphically filling the screen. The Panasonic automatically stretches the image to fit the 16x9 screen. What you are describing on the A-3 sounds like its setting is defaulted not to stretch the image, so you get the pillars.

Check your DVD settings.

 

[diogen]

...with some commercial standard dvds and (so far) all my home burned dvds, the video will not fill the screen of my 16:9 HDTV. Instead it shows a wide-screen but pillar / letter boxed picture - black around all 4 sides.

It sounds like you have a widescreen 16:9 image within a 4:3 frame displayed on a 16:9 TV set
(just like some of Dish's PPV channels): it is most probably a flagging error. But it is hard to pinpoint whos fault it is.

Since some DVDs are displayed properly, it is likely not the TV's fault.
It can either be the DVD has improper flags or the player attaches them.

Try to play the offending DVDs with another DVD player. If the problem goes away, it is an A3's issue.

I think your TV might have an configuration option to fix that (i.e stretch the image in both dimensions).

Diogen.

 

[waltinvt]

It sounds like you have a widescreen 16:9 image within a 4:3 frame displayed on a 16:9 TV set
(just like some of Dish's PPV channels): it is most probably a flagging error. But it is hard to pinpoint whos fault it is.

Since some DVDs are displayed properly, it is likely not the TV's fault.
It can either be the DVD has improper flags or the player attaches them.

Try to play the offending DVDs with another DVD player. If the problem goes away, it is an A3's issue.

I think your TV might have an configuration option to fix that (i.e stretch the image in both dimensions).

Diogen.

These dvds play fine in 2 other dvd players and extend all the way horizontally. Vertically of course depends on the aspect ratio of the source.

My tv has a half dozen stretch / zoom options but only thru the analog inputs, not thru the DVI input.

 

[diogen]

These dvds play fine in 2 other dvd players and extend all the way horizontally.

Do they do this over DVI or component?
Does using component from the A3 fix the problem?

Diogen.

 

[cummingsje]

Did you double check to ensure you have 16:9 selected in the A-3 setup. My t.v. also has the ability to change aspect ratio's but only for 480P or less video. I have run many SD DVD's through my A-2 and they all seem to be shown properly. Also, are the DVD's that you're having trouble with Widescreen format or Fullscreen format.

 

[waltinvt]

Do they do this over DVI or component?
Does using component from the A3 fix the problem?

Diogen.

All I'm using is DVI right now but as I remember, they did the same thing over component. I was told that component wouldn't up-convert anyway, so didn't see any sense keeping the connection.

All I can say, is it looks just like when I'm watching an HD broadcast on some digital tv stations and they break to a commerical and sometimes the picture is still a 16:9 ratio but 3 or 4 inches short of filling the screen on all 4 sides.

 

[diogen]

If there is no difference between DVI and component, it must be a DVD flagging issue...
I haven't seen reports about the HD-A3 not being able to upconvert regular DVDs. Since there are almost no options on the TV for DVI input, what are those on the A3?

Diogen.

 

[dfergie]

If you have the software try ripping your dvd then running the file through dvd patcher (which will reset the headers to 16:9)and burn to a RW to test...

 

[berck]

Check the settings on the A-3. Its not necessarily a selection of TV screeen size, but what to do with content when its not anamorphic (made for a 4x3 display instead of 16x9). Most players by default will stretch the image to fit, but they can be set to leave it alone. I've switched these before. Non-anamorphic images will show both pilars and black bars on what should be a 16x9 image.

 

[waltinvt]

Check the settings on the A-3. Its not necessarily a selection of TV screeen size, but what to do with content when its not anamorphic (made for a 4x3 display instead of 16x9). Most players by default will stretch the image to fit, but they can be set to leave it alone. I've switched these before. Non-anamorphic images will show both pilars and black bars on what should be a 16x9 image.

I believe you're exactly right and it's ironic this post is waiting for me today.

Last night I tried that dvd again (ccommercial SD dvd of "Star Trek - Generations") and this time I went into the A-3's setup and changed the tv screen setting to 4:3 letterbox. Waalaa, the movie then extended to the sides of my 16:9 screen like it should, with a great "up-converted" 1080i picture.

Now it would be nice if the A-3 took care of this internally so I didn't have to temporally change a setting for certain dvds but I think I can live with this because the picture looks so darn good.

 

[gck105]

Yeah, it would be nice if the player could handle this on its own. I have noticed with my A2 that non HD content like previews or extra don't fill the screen on both SD DVDs and HD DVDs. It would be nice if it had a setting to do this on its own. My Sony upconvert DVD player had this and it was a nice feature.