Are all Blu-Ray movies wide screen?

Question

Just wonder if all Blu-Ray movies are wide screen and have the bars on the top and bottom?

Answer 1

Yes, they are widescreen. No, they don't have the bars on the top and bottom. How is that possible?

Well if you have a Blu-Ray disc, you probably have an HDTV. All HDTVs sold today are widescreen TVs with whats called a 16:9 aspect ratio (that means for every 16 horizontal lines of resolution there are 9 vertical lines). Old TV's were square and had whats called a 4:3 aspect ratio (4 horizontal lines of resolution for ever 3 vertical lines).

The problem with 4:3 is that it doesn't reproduce a very true image: humans naturally see wider than taller. Hence, 4:3 tended to thin people on the screen out some, actually making them look fat at angles (thats where the term "the camera adds 15 pounds" comes from, it wasn't the camera it was the TV). But 4:3 TVs also can't display 16:9, well they can, but they scrunch it into the screen and leave those bars.

If you have a 16:9 image however and a 16:9 TV, you will get the whole  screen filled up. Your Blu-Ray movies are in 1920x1080 resolution. Do the math, 1920 divided by 16 is 120, and 1080 devided by 9 is 120. So its a 16:9 image.

If you have a 1920x1080 resolution screen therefor, you will get the whole screen filled up. And you will have a wider view on the image, getting rid of the 15 lbs that everyone thought the camera was adding. Also, you get a slightly bigger image on the whole.

Now what happens if you have a normal TV? Nothing, actually why would you buy a $400 BD player and use it on a $400 standard def TV? Thats insane my friend, just use your DVD player.

But if you have a hi-def TV and a BD player, you get the whole image (unless the person who made the disc was a moron and did something wacky), and you get the best picture quality available until you go past a 120" screen.

And btw, if you can afford a 120" screen, may I be your new best friend? :)

Answer 2

No not usually.

Answer 3

Yes they are, the idea is to approach to a movie teather screen proportion.

Answer 4

Thats a very good one and i think it does because 4:3 full screen its the old format because the old tv sets were all full screen. The movies are shoots in widescreen format and for the old tv be able to display the whole picture you used pan and scan that fill the screen with the movie but in reality it cut the movie to fill a 4:3 tv if you have a blu-ray player you definitely have a widescreen HDTV why you want to view a high definition movie in full screen in a widescreen HDTV. it would be like want to hear a blu-ray movie in a home theater in mono sound !!!

but i think if you want to still see it in full screen you could use the pan and scan feature in the HDTV.

Answer 5

While all movies are Widescreen in Blu-Ray it does NOT mean you will not have bars at the top and bottom.  Many films are in other ratio's other than 16:9 depending on the filmmaker.

You can usually use the "stretch" feature on your TV to fill it up but that usually distorts the picture and you're not watching the film as it was intended.

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