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    Simple SXPS Question

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by LLWesMan, Jun 19, 2009.

  1. LLWesMan

    LLWesMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    Why is it that 1080p video files have widescreen black borders above and below and 720p videos fit the screen full screen? This is on the XPS 16 with the 1920 x 1200 screen.
     
    LLWesMan, Jun 19, 2009
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  2. LLWesMan

    LLWesMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    is this that dumb a question?
     
    LLWesMan, Jun 19, 2009
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  3. wlepse

    wlepse Notebook Consultant

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    Well first I don't believe the screen is 1920x 1200, I think it is 1920x1080. But as for teh black bars that is because the monitor is set up with the same aspect ratio as broadcast HD but most movies have a different aspect ratio. If they are displaying differently check your settings, I would bet your 720P settings are to fill the screen where teh 1080 settings are to maintain aspect ratio of source.
     
    wlepse, Jun 19, 2009
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  4. Melody

    Melody How's It Made Addict

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    Well for the record the SXPS has a 1920*1080 screen, not a 1900*1200.

    As for your question, I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that HD videos have the black bars when you have the 1080p resolutions, but don't when you switch to 720p?
     
    Melody, Jun 19, 2009
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  5. LLWesMan

    LLWesMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    My mistake you're correct 1920*1080 is my screen.

    What I'm saying is that when I open up a 720p video it fills the whole screen. When I open a 1080p video there are black bars.
     
    LLWesMan, Jun 19, 2009
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  6. LLWesMan

    LLWesMan Notebook Enthusiast

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    While it is possible to change the aspect ratio of the 1080p videos to fit full screen the video is distorted. I'm just curious why the 1920*1080 screen designed for 1080p would not have the same aspect ratio as a 1080p movie.
     
    LLWesMan, Jun 19, 2009
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  7. Melody

    Melody How's It Made Addict

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    Have you tried different videos? I mean, the way each video is encoded could simply be the answer.
     
    Melody, Jun 19, 2009
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  8. wlepse

    wlepse Notebook Consultant

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    First off...1080P means the video is 1920x1080 with 60 frames per second, most HDTV is 1080i so it is 1920x1080 at 30 fps and most movies are captured on film which means they have 24fps. But the aspect ratio of film is not always 16:9, quite often you will find there will be black bars top and bottom and I think the aspect ration is something like 1.85:1.

    So first thing you need to do is confirm what the aspect ratio is of each source. If they are both the same then you have to look at the settings for your playback software to see if you are scaling the video. I do not know for sure since I don't have teh 1080 screen but it would make sense for the software to have teh same features of an HDTV where you can choose multiple methods to fill the screen, either zoom or stretch etc.
     
    wlepse, Jun 19, 2009
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