Aspect Ratio Question

[slickster]

I hope this is the correct place to post this.

Why is it that when I watch an original DVD like Atlantis on a 16:9 screen, the picture uses the whole screen (with projector) and when I backup the same DVD to DVD-R and play it on the same system, there are black bars (letterbox) showing.
Atlantis is a 16:9 movie according to the original case.
I do realize that some movies have a smaller viewing area.


I use:

Verbatim DVD-R
Anydvd - latest release 6.0.7.0.
DVD Shrink
Then latest Nero for nurning 7.5.1.1. at 8x burning speed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Ciao

[guns1inger]

The aspect ratio for DVD is 16:9 - what is the movie aspect ratio ?

You are right, the image should not change based on your process. I have found however that some studios do not master their discs correctly for 16:9, so the flags aren't always observed on playback. Disney is one of the worst offenders. So playing it back on your projector might fill the screen simply because it isn't actually being displayed correctly. After shrinking, if the AR flags are set correctly, the projector might now observe the flags, and display it with the correct AR, hence you get the black bars that should have been there the whole time.

Just confirmed - the original aspect ratio for Atlantis is 2.35:1, so even on a 16:9 display you should get black bars. Basically, DVD Shrink is correcting the mastering errors created by Disney, and giving you the correct aspect ratio for playback.

[slickster]

Thanks guns1inger, that explains alot.
This has been bothing me for a long, long time. I don't know why I didn't post this question before.

Thanks for your help on this one.