What's the difference between all the wide screen formats?

[happydog500]

When I watch DVDs at home, I watch them on a 4:3 TV. I can watch a wide screen DVD if it's one that has only little bars at the top and bottom. I'm sure most everyone has seen the really, really widescreen that is very skinny, lots of space at the top and bottom.

When at the video store last night, I ran into several different "Wide screen" Videos. I looked at the "aspect ratio" and found several different ones. I tried to remember the specifics but after a while, I ran into to many to remember (I think someting like 2.32.1 was one). Seems like when I look at the back of wide screen DVD Boxs, I see several different numbers that describe the ratio of wide screen.

I looked on the internet but it only lists the difference of 4.3, 16.9, pan and scan, letter box. Nothing on the different ratios of wide screens. Can someone help me understand so when I get a 16.9 DVD, I can get one that's not the extreme w i d e s c r e e n. Thanks,
Chris.

[DRP]

There are only 4 aspect ratios that movies come in on DVD. They are (nominally) 4:3 (1.33:1); 16:9 (1.78:1); 1.85:1 & 2.35:1.

That last one is the only one you'll have a drama with watching on a 4:3 screen. It is the "extreme w i d e s c r e e n" one you're talking about. It can be identified on the back packaging of a DVD by the presence of either the number 2.35:1 aspect ratio or the words "anamorphic 16:9 widescreen - enhanced widescreen" or similar. Avoid discs with those words on the back and you have nothing to worry about.

[celtic_druid]

That would be 2.35:1 and it is quite common for modern films.

It is a simple ratio, width:height, nothing really to understand. 16:9 = 1.78:1 and means no black bars on a 16:9 display or what you would have been looking at with the skinny bars.

4:3 = 1.33:1, so the closer you get to that. The least amount of black. Then again you have widescreen 4:3 movies (non anamorphic), where it is 4:3 but with black bars encoded, making it widescreen. Generally these are 1.78:1 and tend to be older releases.

[guns1inger]

There are more than 4 film aspect ratios being used on DVD. 1.66 is common for Kubrick films (Clockwork Orange is 1.66, Dr Strangelove is a mix of 1.33 and 1.66), 2.20 (2001, A Space Odyssy), and 2.40 are also used. I have even seen 2.0 used. Basically, there is no limit and no rule.

For DVD though there are only two aspect ratios used 1.33 (4:3) and 1.78 (16:9). Anything that doesn't fit these exactly will require black bars to fill out the space.

[DRP]

That's why I said "nominally". 1.66 would be nominally a 16:9 AR. Anything from ~2.20 through to ~2.5:1 is nominally 2.35:1 AR. I have never seen a 2:1 AR being used. Perhaps a home-made cropped recode of an original 2.35:1 DVD?

[guns1inger]

I hope you don't program for NASA - your rounding errors would be outrageous. Niminally, Mars and the moon are the same.

2.0:1 is in fact part of the VistaVision format.

For a more informed and detailed run down of aspect ratios used in film production (and possibly appearing on a DVD near you), have a read of this (and accept to round errors)

http://widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml

[DRP]

For the purposes of answering the question posed by the OP (something most people in here seem to lose sight of very quickly) the nominal aspect ratios are more than good enough to consider. If I was into interplanetary exploration, then I wouldn't get my information from a website at all and especially not this one.

When you find a DVD case in the local video store that tells you the exact AR to 5 decimal places, please post back and let us know.

[guns1inger]

None - they go to two decimals places, just as he does. 2.35:1, or 2.35 to 1.

And I can find films that carry most of those ARs on their cover.

[DRP]

I have never seen a DVD cover with anything other than 2.35, 2.40, 1.85, 16:9 or 4:3 or the much less useful "enhanced widescreen", "anamorphic widescreen" text printed on them and this despite the actual AR being anything from 2.21 to 2.6 as with the latest Jodie Foster flick Flightplan.

[guns1inger]

The ones I named earlier all do. You won't see all of those ARs in use because many were used for shooting, but not necessarily for printing. VV 2.00:1 was primarily used as a shooting resolution, but the prints were often matted down to something more standard. Not always though.

I believe this is why most electronic stores and TV sales people set up widescreen TVs incorrectly and hide the black bars. They can't understand it, so they can't explain it to customers. Of course, the customers get home, put in a 2.35 DVD and get pissed off that there are black bars on their lovely new plasma.

[BSpielbauer]

I have never seen a DVD cover with anything other than 2.35, 2.40, 1.85, 16:9 or 4:3 or the much less useful "enhanced widescreen", "anamorphic widescreen" text printed on them and this despite the actual AR being anything from 2.21 to 2.6 as with the latest Jodie Foster flick Flightplan.

Uh, DRP, I am not trying to be contentious, but the second DVD I grabbed off my shelf must be one of the many which you have not yet come across.

Here is a scan, from my own copy of Lawrence of Arabia:

http://www.backyard-studio.com/lawrence.jpg


There are many more similar ones out there, by the way. Yes, as many people have noticed, it is true that a lot of DVD labeling cannot be trusted, and inaccuracies abound. Technical data is often gathered by those who are woefully incapable of doing proper research, and it often shows. However, it is also true that sometimes the labeling is 100% correct. The distributors are sometimes getting their facts straight.

If you need more examples where the aspect ratio is correct (and where it does not conform to your own list above), let me know. There are many.

By the way, here is a list of some of the ones that IMDB has posted, and this list pertains specifically to the DVD release of the film (as opposed to the original theatrical release, which is also a separate list) In most of these cases, the ratio listed here is the one printed on the actual packaging:

Browse Aspect Ratios:
1 : 1,
1. : 1,
1.3 : 1,
1.33 : 1,
1.37 : 1,
1.44 : 1,
1.50 : 1,
1.55 : 1,
1.58 : 1,
1.59 : 1,
1.66 : 1,
1.70 : 1,
1.74 : 1,
1.75 : 1,
1.77 : 1,
1.78 : 1,
1.85 : 1,
1.88 : 1,
1.90 : 1,
1.93 : 1,
16 : 1,
2.00 : 1,
2.10 : 1,
2.13 : 1,
2.14 : 1,
2.15 : 1,
2.2 : 1,
2.20 : 1,
2.21 : 1,
2.25 : 1,
2.30 : 1,
2.31 : 1,
2.35 : 1,
2.40 : 1,
2.45 : 1,
2.50 : 1,
2.55 : 1,
2.75 : 1,
2.76 : 1,
VAR,
Various

It is possible to browse these aspect ratios as links, so one can see all of the DVDs which have been released that claim to be 2.55:1, for example.

NOW, to return to the original topic of this thread... (I am un-hijacking this thread)...

To the original poster, HappyDog500:

One of the better guides to understanding this can be found here:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

And, you should follow it up with a careful read of this link regarding anamorphic video, since it alters your perception of shape as it appears on some of the DVDs:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

Do not confuse this with the term anamorphic as it applies to lenses in motion pictures, though, since that it a completely different use of the same term.

Hope this helps,

-Bruce