4:3-16:9 Friggin' Confusing!

I have an HP DV4150 (DV4000), with a 15.4 true-brite widescreen. When I play a dvd if it's a widescreen it puts the black bars at the top and bottom, when i play a full screen it plays with the black bars on the left and right sides, I never get a dvd to take up the entire screen????? I need help its very annoying!

 

uhh...thats the way it is man...

since your screen is widescreen, the only way to make it "tv standard" are "putting in" those black bars.

btw widescreen is originally how all movies are filmed, so when you watch it on TV you're actually missing some stuff on the sides...

 

I have a widescreen (52inch) tv so i under stand about the formatting. but i don't see how i can't watch widescreen movies that take up the whole screen I thought that was what the widescreen was for. i can understand about the full screen but the widescreen should take up the whole screen.

 

the 52" you speak of is 16x9, your laptop screen is actually 16x10, so all widescreen movies including 16x9 movies played on your laptop will have black bars..

if you find this annoying you can download Media Player Classic and use it to play back your movies.. You can then "stretch to fit" the screen, though it doesn't look as good, but it will remove the bars.

 

the bars wouldn't really be a problem but they are huge (2 inches on the top and bottom)! it seems like i may have a setting incorrect some where. I am running in 1280x800 if that seems right let me know. if there could be a setting i am missing please bring it to my attn. I did a full format and re-install of everything today and i forgot to re-create my small partition for quickplay to operate would that have something to do with it, i started to install it after i did the re-install of XP then i got to reading the manual for it when it wouldn't install and it toold me i have to create that partition before i install my os or i have to start all over (re-install everything) i spent 7 hours today totally wiping this system clean starting over. I bought the laptop from a co-worker yesterday, and it was cram-packed with JUNK and his personal information, so I promptly wiped it out and started clean and totally missed the whole thing about quickplay til it was too late ( i have never had an HP latop before and wasnt familiar with quickplay) is there a way to install it now without redoing everything I have worked so hard on today? i don't wanna create a back-up and reinstall windows again.

 

yes bar issue is normal..

as for quickplay, hopefully someone will let you know where to download a copy, in the meantime you can try searching for it here

 

I have it on the restore disk but it says i must partition the drive to 212mb and install it there for it to work. then install my os on the unpartitioned space

 

and that link doesn't work it just shows the file name after 2o secs no link to click on

 

You will have bars anyway if your movie format ration is >1.78. 1.85 and 2.35 movies are wider than 16:9 or 16:10 and don't fit the entire screen area.

Steve

 

Allot of films are not in 16:9 as well

there is 2.35:1, 2.39:1, and 2.40:1. Most films are actually recorded in anamorphic widescreen which is actually 2.39:1.

So keep in mind, the "widescreen" on your monitor is 16:10 (in most cases) which will give black bars on the top for a 16:9 film. Then you have the common anamorphic which is ~21.60:9. In either case you will have black bars. However, the widescreen on your monitor does provide the width required to increse your vertical height, when compared to a standard 4:3 screen of similar size.