Films At Full Screen

Hi, ive started to back up some of my DVD's and i was wondering what application should i use to watch the film full screen. currently im suing VLC Player but when i press full screen i get 2 BIG black lines at the top and bottom of the screen when i try watching any film that i have put on my HD is there a way to watch my films at full screen - as in all the screen is used to disaply the video and not just the big black lines that i currently have on all the films, i tried running them in the media centre but it said that some codecs were missing.

 

You can't because the shape of your screen and the shape of the movie are different. You could probably fix it so it fills the screen, but it will distort the picture.

 

well that sucks films dont even cover half the screen - its okay length ways but the height is a joke whats the point in watching a film on a laptop if half the screen aint even being used. thanx for the info

 

Use media player classic. It can stretch the image.

 

Well it's a laptop, not an HDTV. If you need to have it full, get a laptop with a 16:9 screen. Even those still have the bars though, albeit reduced.

 

with media player classic you can zoom the video with the numblock to fit your screen as you want (with borders, without but sides cut away, with a bit border and a bit cut (what i'll do)), and stretch them as well (some videomaterial from the web is sometimes with wrong aspect).

 

The film was shot in that size so the black bars at the top and bottom are normal. If there were black bars at the left and right as well as top and bottom then you would need to zoom into the film to get it full screen.

Now, if you want to show the film over the whole screen you can either stretch it so it looks weird and everything gets taller and looks like twiggy or you can crop the sides off so that stuff that happens on the left and right of the screen gets removed.

Personally I live with the black bars at the top and bottom simply because thats how the film was supposed to be shown but most video playback (such as VLC) should allow zooming in of the video to remove the left and right sides.

 

i hear you man, those black lines are so thick and they take up so much of the screen. that's the biggest annoyance i have!!!!

i have a 42" plasma, and when i watch movies with those stupid bars/lines, the picture is practically on 1/3rd of my plasma screen. it's like im watching it on a 10" tv......

i think it's so stupid that we are forced to PAY for movies that look like sh!t on our tvs. this really boils my blood.

yeah you can zoom in but it kills the quality. you might as well watch on VHS.

and we're paying $15 or more per movie....? w t f!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

thanx for all the info and tips - ill see what i can do, i dont really want to reduce the quality of the film otherwise whats the point in watching it

yeah its a joke that we have to pay for the films that dont even show up right when watching them - did VHS have these massive black lines down the sides?

 

Changing the values under VLC Video-> Aspect ratio and Crop should remove any black bars on the side.

 

This article may shed some light on your "problems". VHS didn't black lines down the sides because they simply cut the sides off of the movies, rather than give you the whole movie that you're now complaining about. You have two choices... either buy the full-screen version of the movie and lose the breadth of the action in exchange for the height, or get the widescreen version and realize that the film aspect ratio (usually 1.85:1 or 2.39:1) will never match the aspect of your monitor (1.33:1 on a normal monitor, 1.78:1 on a widescreen) so you have to get the bars or lose some of the movie.

 

Yep, there is a way to do it without making the picture deformed.

In MPC, right-click on the screen and select Video Frame, then select Touch Windows From Outside. This way the aspect ratio doesn't change, but you will lose a bit of both sides though.

 

i got it working great with VLC - its full screen AND the same quality! so im happy now and gonna rip the rest of my filsm - start with Red Dwarf series 1 - 4 might be old but its a classic hoping to buy series 5-8 some time

 

None of the other players will lose quality as well when you're playing DVDs, because you're not stretching it a lot, it's so little that your eyes won't able to see a difference. But you cannot avoid one of the two issues, even with VLC, either a disproportional picture by stretching only vertically, or losing a bit both sides.

 

I'd just like to point out that some eyes are more sensitive to those little changes. I am in that category, and notice things that some others do not.

 

Yes, some eyes are more sensitive than others. Sometimes it could be psychological though. If you look at both sizes one right after another other, you will probably think there is a difference in quality more than if you look at either one during a separate time. It also depends on the original movie itself, some have a much larger space at the top and bottom, those will show a bigger difference.

 

i think it had the video under the black lines or something as i change it several times on several different films and didnt notice any difference - but even it did change something i dont care as i couldnt see it, the picture still looks great

 

The reason why there are "bars" on the top and the bottom is because the film was shot with a widescreen viewing aspect in mind. It was part of the director's vision. Watching widescreen movies in a 4:3 (full screen) layout degrades the movies. It takes away part of the image. Everything was positioned so as to fit on widescreen layout. If you think about it, this is normal because in real life, a lot more things happen on the horizontal than on the vertical; you look sideways a lot, you don't really look up and down that much when you're outside.

Full screen uses a "pan and scan" method to compensate for lost image. It can ruin films where you can't see another character's reaction in a scene or you miss out on beautiful landscapes, etc. I'm sure there are some youtube videos out comparing full screen to widescreen and the consequences of pan and scan.

Do some research and you will realize widescreen is so much better Even if not the entire monitor display is used.

Remember that when you watch full screen shows (for ex TV) then you will have two vertical "black bars".