Why does my Toshiba HDDVD player connected to a Sony projector send a picture like a widescreen movie?

Question

When I play HD through cable it projects full screen @200" screen but when playing HD DVD it does not fill the screen like HD but cuts the film like a widescreen movies does. Is there any adjustments that can be made to make the HDDVD fill the whole screen? thanks!

Answer 1

Assuming you have set the aspect ratio for the player and projector right, the short answer is, yes, but you wouldn't want to do it.

This is all about the relative aspect ratio (AR, ratio of width to height) of the screen and the film/movie. See the link for a picture showing the relationship of some common ARs.

I'm not sure what you mean by "HD through cable" but HDTV is 16:9 AR material, and if that fills your 200" screen the screen must be 16:9 as well.

Movies are filmed in a range of ARs -- from 1.33:1 (4:3) to over 2.7:1. Screens can be any aspect ratio as well. So if you have a 16:9 (1.78:1) screen when you project various films with different ARs (e.g. 1.33:1,1.78:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1) images the only ones that fill the screen are those with the same AR as the screen, everything else has bars above and below or on the sides. No matter what screen you choose there will always be films that don't fit.

If you want a 2.35:1 movie to fill your 16:9 screen it will have to either be cropped at each side or stretched vertically. The first means you will not see a fair bit of the image on either side of centre (See 2nd link for some examples), or the image will be really distorted.

I suggest you get used to the bars on top and bottom and watch as the director intended.

Answer 2

all hd-dvd and blue ray discs play in 16:9 foremat, that is by design. high def is meant to played as if you were in a movie theater which plays in 16:9 format.