DVDs play in a black "window" on my Samsung HLR4667W
JeffL
Unregistered guest
Posted on
This problem is *really* bugging me. I have a progressive scan Sony DVD/VHS combo player connected to my Samsung DLP HLR4667W via component video. The DVD (for example, last night, the Sopranos) is played in a 16:9 aspect ratio, but there's a black box all the way around the screen (not just the sides, as in 4:3 or the top, as in letterbox) effectively making my 46" TV 36" or so. In order to make it fit my screen, I'm forced to use zoom1 and actually CUT OFF part of my 16:9 DVD! What really makes me confused is the dvd's menu is displayed correctly in 16:9, without the black bars on all 4 sides of the picture. What the heck is going on?
They are 4:3 letterbox DVDs, not 16:9 letterbox, there's a difference.
JeffL
Unregistered guest
Posted on
It says widescreen format on the DVD case and it has a "16:9" stamped on the DVD itself. Plus, the menus are in 16:9. How are 4:3 letterboxed to 16:9 DVDs differentiated from normal 16:9 DVDs?
4:3 widescreen DVDs are formatted for a 4:3 TV, they are widescreen on a 4:3 TV, but they don't have the sides that a 16:9 DVD has. What DVDs and cases say isn't always true, I've seen many of them that are wrong.
My problem is similar to JeffL's above. My Samsung 5674 offers several modes of screen manipulation such as 4:3, wide, Zoom1, Zoom2, Expanded, PC, etc. but only with some DVDs and not others. Example, 6 Days, Seven Nights Quite often I find myself forced to watch a so-called widescreen DVD in the 4:3 aspect with black all around because the correct Zoom option is missing from the Samsung's menu.
I can't stand watching stretched video either vertically or horizontally. Does anyone know what is missing?
No amount of manipulation of the menus in the Samsung or my Denon 3910 DVD player seems to work.
Questions remain. Where do the menu options go when I view different DVDs. Aren't those options built in functions of the TV itself? The TV manual does not discuss this although maybe I should look again.
I set the TV to 16:9 while there is a 4:3 LB and 4:3 PS option available. It is the zoom options that become limiting. When I expand the picture as in 6 Days, Seven Nights, it only expands horizontally and not the equivalent amount vertically leaving me with a stretched movie.
I checked the Samsung website and they claim in their FAQs that only wide and 4:3 aspect ratios are available in the component AV mode. In other words distortion is unavoidable in some instances.
Sounds like doo-doo to me after spending $3,000 for a TV but as they say, let the buyer beware.
I thought that the distorted/stretched images I saw on other's TVs were the result of laziness or ignorance on the part of the owners.
The combination of the Denon 3910 and the Samsung 5674 with the DVI connection, provides some terrific looking movies when it works right. I should be happy for that.
JeffL
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I've now tried both the red/white/yellow AV cables, as well as component video. (Dare I go spend more money and try svideo?)
I've also tried 2.35:1 (anamorphic), 1.85:1 and 16:9 dvds. They all behave the same way. They're sent as 4:3 letterboxed when I play the movie, but the menus are sent correctly. (?!)