Widescreen problem...(esp. older movies)

[johnnypraze]

I have a problem with some of my older movies. (widescreen)

Heres the set-up...

DVD Decryptor > DVD Shrink > Clone DVD

Like I said only certain movies have this aspect issue.

Movies like "The Great Outdoors" "The Breakfast Club" "Dazed and Confused" to name a few, are stretched left and right on my widescreen tv when viewed in the normal widescreen mode.
All my other backups and originals look totally normal in this mode, but there are a few that are stretched.

The picture appears fine in 4:3 mode as a widescreen movie but I have the bars on all four sides.

Its not the DVD player, because Ive swapped it out, and have the same problem.

This is what Im lookin at:

Any ideas...?

[guns1inger]

They are widescreen letterbox, not 16:9 enchanced. This means that while they appear to be widescreen (i.e. they are presented in their original aspect ratio) they are set within a normal 4:3 framing. When you view them on a widescreen TV you can either watch them in 4:3 mode, with frames all around, or use the zoom function of the player or TV to fill the screen without stretching. Depending on the quality of the zoom, you may get a soft grainy image.

There is not easy or good way to fix this, other than to see if you can source a different copy that is widescreen enhanced (or 16:9 or anamorphic or one a dozen other descripters).

To correct this yourself would involve demuxing to get the video stream to mpeg, cropping, resizing, then re-encoding. If not done carefully, the results could be much worse than using the zoom on your player.

[drjtech]

Does this happen with the original DVD, or only with the backup? Your original post isn't clear on this point, but since this is posted in DVD to DVDR I'm guessing that the original DVDs display properly and only the backups display improperly. Is that correct?

-drj

[johnnypraze]

Now that Ive gone back and checked, it is originals as well...

I believe guns1inger has answered my question...

Are there many dvds made in this widescreen letterbox, or is it becoming more rare...?

[GnatGoSplat]

It's becoming more rare.