Screen Aspect Ratio

NorthStar

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Feb 8, 2011
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All (99.999999999%) of all flat panel HDTVs are 16 by 9 rectangles (1.78:1 aspect ratio), with black bars at the bottom and top for even movies with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Personally I dislike those black bars, and they are in roughly 90%+ of all my movies watching.

The best Cinema experience is from a front projector (IMHO), and with the appropriate screen's aspect ratio to fit most of all popular movie director's cinematography.

How many people here have such a screen, and with the proper front projector, so that no black bars appear at the bottom and top when watching a movie in the 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio?

And what do you do with a movie that has a 2.55:1 aspect ratio or so?

* For me the best is what the movie director with his cinematographer have decided to project his film with his preferred screen's aspect ratio.
Our flat panel HDTVs are a liability, a compromise; and I want to get rid of it. ...No more black bars. I want to be in my own theater at home without them.

If you understand how I feel about this, please share some so that me too, without spending the 'bank', I can experience the movie director's original intended creation. ...And the black bars simply don't cut it, no more.
 

GaryProtein

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Jul 25, 2012
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Even if you used a projection, your screen would always have bars (unprojected area) someplace if the movie wasn't the same aspect ratio as your screen.

The only solution would be for all cinematographers to agree on ONE UNIVERSAL aspect ratio.
 

NorthStar

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Gary, I believe some motorized screens can fill the full picture, without any black bars, anywhere. ...But I also might be wrong.

* At the commercial cinema theaters (Cineplex, Imax, etc.) I don't recall ever seeing black bars. ...But it has been fifteen years or so for me.
Wow, that long! ...I feel embarrassed.

** Universal screen aspect ratio? Never; 'cineastes' are artists of multiple aspect ratios; just like painters. They are not artists to please everyone, but their own taste first, and then they have their cult, and then the money aspect ratio... James Cameron has his own preference (moving pictures size), Steven Spielberg another, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, Terry Gilliam, Peter Weir, Luchino Visconti, Giuseppe Tornatore, Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Joel Coen, Michael Mann, Luc Besson, ... and you have yesterday's grand classic cinematic films from wider screen aspect ratios (2.55:1 and even a little bit more).

And, the odd 1.66:1 aspect ratio (compromise for the in-between 1.33:1 and 1.85:1), plus the 1.33:1 (4:3) from our old TV standard.
 
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GaryProtein

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That's right. A motorized screen will extend to the extent that the image aspect ratio will cover it. Instead of a black bar, you have a screen that doesn't extend fully and require a black bar to cover unprojected areas. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other. In commercial theaters, black curtains cover the unprojected areas of the screen allowing a constant height/variable width screen image.

There are a couple of extra wide 2.35:1 (21:9) aspect ratio TV's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drD5CLxO2JA
 

NorthStar

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Feb 8, 2011
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That's right. A motorized screen will extend to the extent that the image aspect ratio will cover it. Instead of a black bar, you have a screen that doesn't extend fully and require a black bar to cover un-projected areas. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other.
In commercial theaters, black curtains cover the un-projected areas of the screen allowing a constant height/variable width screen image.

Bingo Gary, you got it; the black curtains in commercial theaters .... I guess we can do the same at home. ...Or motorized curtains or a motorized screen.

____________________

* Some informative links ::

- Projector & Screen Basics http://www.hometheater.com/content/projector-screen-basics
- Screen: http://www.hometheater.com/content/elite-screens-osprey-dte110c88h-e20-screen
- How To Choose One (Screen): http://www.hometheater.com/content/how-choose-video-projection-screen

There are a couple of extra wide 2.35:1 (21:9) aspect ratio TV's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drD5CLxO2JA

Yes; that's why I said 99.999999999% ... the remaining being those couple extra widescreen ones. ...But not without their own flaws.
-> The Vizio XVT3D580CM 3D LCD HDTV is such one of those: http://www.hometheater.com/content/vizio-xvt3d580cm-3d-lcd-hdtv

Isn't this why we have anamorphic lenses

And yes (The Anamorphic Lens & also the Zoom Technique): http://www.hometheater.com/content/constant-image-height-nitty-gritty

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*** Choosing the Right Aspect Ratio: http://www.projectorcentral.com/build_home_theater_screen_aspect_ratio.htm
 

GaryProtein

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Jul 25, 2012
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You could always have a stack of three screens, one for each ratio. :p
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
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I have a 2:35-1 aspect ratio screen, 115" x 49", and use the 'zoom' method for the 2:35 aspect ratio movies with my 4k Sony projector.

my Dalight screen had masking for when I switched to 16:9 aspect ratio, and I used an ISCO III anamorphic lens when I had my JVC RS-1 projector. but for the 4K Sony, the blacks are so black and the detail and brightness high enough that I sold the ISCO III lens and removed the masking and just go with different aspect ratios with the presets in the projector. I also sold my video processor I had needed for the anamorphic lens.

I have not missed the ISCO III at all, as great as it was. the Sony 4K projector is the real deal. hopefully soon I will have some true 4K titles for it.
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
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435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
I have a 2:35-1 aspect ratio screen, 115" x 49", and use the 'zoom' method for the 2:35 aspect ratio movies with my 4k Sony projector.

my Dalight screen had masking for when I switched to 16:9 aspect ratio, and I used an ISCO III anamorphic lens when I had my JVC RS-1 projector. but for the 4K Sony, the blacks are so black and the detail and brightness high enough that I sold the ISCO III lens and removed the masking and just go with different aspect ratios with the presets in the projector. I also sold my video processor I had needed for the anamorphic lens.

I have not missed the ISCO III at all, as great as it was. the Sony 4K projector is the real deal. hopefully soon I will have some true 4K titles for it.

Mike, not only you are up-to-the-last-minute on all hi-end audio related matters, but on home theater movies as well.
...And not just 'a peu pres', but precisely (at best, fully integrated).

Your experience and knowledge on both is the inspiration (guide) for the newer generation, and the not so young.

Your Sony Ultra HD projector; it's the VPL-VW1000ES 4K SXRD 3D one right?

Mike, I don't know much about your home theater room, and I'm not sure if there are threads that I missed about it in the past.
But I for sure would love to know more about; screen and all. ...Visual, and Audio, like what SSP are you using for example, and is your home theater rig a 5.1, 7.1, 9.1, or 11.1-channel flavor?
* But for the Home Audio Theater department, and the Visual aspect too, a dedicated thread would feel at best, most comfortable.
- You can still tell us the content of your audio equation, but with an emphasis on the aspect ratio of your viewpoint (onscreen visuals). ;)
...Just simply to not bifurcate too much (extreme right, or left) from the main topic. :b

1. Your Sony Ultra HD front projector: Some of your settings for best picture quality in both the 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 screen aspect ratios?
* Those two sizes being the most popular ones.

2. Your SSP: Which one is it?

3. Could you please tell us a little bit more about your Dalight Screen?

4. Your HT rig: A 7.1-channel one? ...Or larger? ...And how many subs?

5. When viewing a film with a 2.55:1 aspect ratio for example; what do you do exactly?
Any screen's setting, or you just let it rip? ...Like you said; the blacks of the Sony are so good that it don't affect your viewing experience from your screen's very dark black bars.
* For front projections I can relate to this, but certainly not for flat panel HDTVs; unless viewed in total darkness (blackness of the room's), plus with blacks from the best Kuro Elite levels (0.0001 ft-L) or less. ...Or the latest plasmas from Panasonic (Pro models).
 
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