whats the definition of widescreen?

[cosmicr]

most if not all of the dvd's I've seen are 720x576 (1.25 ratio). Can someone give me an example of a 16:9(1.777 ratio) movie? If I'm not understanding this correctly can someone please set me straight?

[andw]

Check out this for aspect ratio nightmares.. http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml
Most DVD's that are widescreen, are recorded anamorphically (read above link, it will make sense). (also see the button on the left of that page marked 'widescreen')
This basically means that the X-axis (left to right) is squished (making all the people look tall and thin).
This then allows a widescreen TV to stretch it back out again so the people look normal again (correct aspect ratio).
It is up to your DVD player to 'add-in' the black bars top and bottom to make a 'letterbox' image on a 4:3 standard screen.(although some 4:3 TV's can do this also).
If you read the above link though, it gives more information than this.

[cosmicr]

okay but how does the dvd player know if its widescreen or not? Or does it just stretch the image so that it fits the screen appropriately regardless?

[andw]

On most DVD players, even a standard 4:3 image (i.e. old TV series type thing) will be stretched across the 'widescreen' tv. (giving the wrong aspect ratio, so everyone looks 'stretched out')

[andw]

moved to dvd section.

[lummie]

okay but how does the dvd player know if its widescreen or not? Or does it just stretch the image so that it fits the screen appropriately regardless?

In a dvd players set up menu it will ask which type of tv you have, the three most likely options are

1) 4:3 Pan & Scan: Which is for tvs that are non widescreen but will try to screen dvds that are designed to be cropped if it allows it.

2) 4:3 Widescreen: Again for tvs that are non widescreen but will show all widescreen programmes with black bars and will show the entire image.

3) 16:9: This option is for people with widescreen tvs. If you try to use this option with a normal tv it will squish the image and make people look slimmer.

If you select the third option, when a dvd that is anamorphically enhanced it will stretch the image to fit a widescreen tv. Its a bit of a nightmare to try and explain how it does it but it basically will follow the dvds player instructions as to whether to stretch the image for widescreen or not. However some dvds wont stretch and they are non-anamorphic but only a few out there are this format and they are almost non-exisitent in new dvd's

Hope this helps.