Re: Displaying 4:3 video on HDTV

In DVD Studio ProYou can choose how 16:9 anamorphic-encoded video is displayed on 4:3 TVs. If you select "4:3 letterboxed," the 16:9 footage will be displayed on a 4:3 TV with black bars above and below the footage. "4:3 pan & scan" will show the 16:9 footage full-frame, but with the sides chopped off. These options are merely flags that tell the DVD player hardware how to display the image.

There are several links in the chain that can affect how the image is ultimately displayed. The first is how the footage is compressed. You can encode 16:9 footage as anamorphic 16:9, and DVD Studio Pro will recognize it as anamorphic footage and apply the proper horizontal stretch on playback, whether on a computer or on a properly configured DVD player connected to a 16:9 TV. 4:3 footage does not need any special encoding.

The second step is to make sure that the DVD player video output is set up properly. DVD players have a menu setting that selects whether a 4:3 or 16:9 television is connected.

If the DVD player is set to 4:3 when connected to a 16:9 television:

-4:3 material will be stretched horizontally
-16:9 anamorphic material will be displayed either as squashed vertically with black bars above and below or as horizontally stretched pan & scan 4:3
-letterboxed 4:3 material will be displayed stretched horizontally with black bars above and below.

If the DVD player is set to 16:9 when connected to a 4:3 TV:

-16:9 anamorphic material will fill the screen and appear vertically stretched
-4:3, 4:3 letterboxed and 4:3 pan & scan material will be displayed properly

Finally, there is the aspect ratio settings on the TV itself. Most HDTVs have several settings, including 4:3, 16:9, and various zoomed/stretched modes. Some HDTVs have circuits that attempt to guess the proper aspect ratio setting by analyzing the content being played. They are quite often wrong.

You have no control over how someone else's DVD player and TV are set up. If your 4:3 DVD isn't being displayed properly, then chances are, neither is 4:3 programming from other 4:3 DVDs or from 4:3 broadcast/cable/satellite. The best you can do is to author your DVD properly and hope that the intended viewer has his or her DVD player and TV properly set up.

Hollywood DVDs that have 4:3 and 16:9 versions contain two separately encoded versions of the film, usually on different sides of the DVD. Some films are released in two separate editions, one "widescreen" and one "fullscreen," with the fullscreen being a pan & scan version with the sides chopped off. I personally think they should call them "widescreen" and "butchered," but that's just me.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that the two main aspect ratios of U.S. films are 1.85:1 and 2.35:1, neither of which conform exactly to 16:9, which written a different way is 1.78:1. Thus, a 1.85:1 film shown full-frame on a 16:9 screen will have very small black bars above and below the image, and a 2:35:1 film will have larger black bars above and below the image.

Confused yet? ;)