How do I play a widescreen DVD correctly using 720p (I'm using Xbox 360)?

Dark Coz · 10-22-2009, 02:50 PM

Since every DVD today are now widescreen-only, and I have a widescreen TV that has 720p and 1080i via component video cables (no HDMI - it's an older HDTV), I would have thought that when I play movies on the Xbox 360 under 720p (which comes with Widescreen). I can play them, but they are still letterboxed even if I use the right settings. I'm trying to get the widescreen disc to play full on a widescreen TV, but so far, I have no luck. Advice, please?

**helix eternal** · 10-25-2009, 07:54 PM

720p is a 16:9 resolution. Most widscreen movies are 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 which are wider yet than 16:9 and will still cause letterboxing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

WiLLiSTER · 10-25-2009, 11:03 PM

And if you feel like you must get rid of the letterbox, there should be an option on your tv to change the view (on mine there was something like normal, wide, full, pan and scan), but it's going to cut off part of whatever you're watching.

Ztype · 10-25-2009, 11:46 PM

Letterboxing is hardcoded into the film so it's always going to be there regardless of what kind of TV you have. Your options are to deal with it, or use your TV to zoom in on the picture, which looks like crap. Studios have to encode film in 1:78:1, or utilize digital signal processing to fill an entire TV screen with picture information. Most don't.

Blackraven · 10-26-2009, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WiLLiSTER

And if you feel like you must get rid of the letterbox, there should be an option on your tv to change the view (on mine there was something like normal, wide, full, pan and scan), but it's going to cut off part of whatever you're watching.

Some people at AVS forum suggested that you zoom in if your AV device supports it (i.e. PS3 can zoom in up to 2.2x). If you wanna get rid of those black bars of course.

Other than that, letterboxing is already part of the master and even till this day, most Blu-ray DVDs have the black bars. Nothing much you can do about it except to use zoom and other options available.......

WiLLiSTER · 10-26-2009, 01:54 PM

If you really wanted to fix it you could rip the movie, crop just the video, reencode it, and play it without the letterbox, but there's probably an easier solution to that plan