CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

that's actually the problem - 4:3 material is output as pillarboxed 16:9. the frame shape seems to be cast in stone as 16:9. mode/flag 9 dictates how to display 4:3 material within that 16:9 frame - stretched or pillarboxed. what i want is the frame shape to be 4:3 and thus have material which is not 4:3 to be letterboxed appropriately.

that is how i had my old HD-DVD set up. it output a 4:3 frame. this gave me:
- full screen (height and width) for 4:3 material
- full screen for letterboxed 4:3 material which meant it was presented as full width 16:9 material, letterboxed
- full width letterboxed for material that is non 4:3 in ratio.

all this was over HDMI - so i know that it's possible .... the sammy just does not do it, and from the sound of it, neither does the OPPO

RobertMfromLI · Joined: 29 Jun 2009 Posts: 114 Location: West Islip, NY

Hi zaphod,

My mistake... I asked him the exact opposite of what you needed. Sorry...

Robert

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

no problem, dude.

RobertMfromLI · Joined: 29 Jun 2009 Posts: 114 Location: West Islip, NY

OK... called Oppo back, they say there is an option in the menu for TV Output Ratio, in which, 4:3 can be selected, which will letterbox 16:9 and display 4:3 normally.

They claim that this option is available for all output modes/ports including HDMI. This time I asked about the BDP-83 unit:
http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/blu-ray-BDP-83-Features.aspx

SO... if they know what they are talking about, then the answer to zaphod's question, is yes, (at least their BDP-83) player will work properly with a device that is 4:3 and has HDMI aspect ratios... (not that he has ever heard of one).

energeezer · Joined: 08 Aug 2007 Posts: 67

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

Mark_A_W · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:57 am Post subject:

Where do you put your centre speaker with a 4:3 screen?

4:3 is for watching on the Tele, not on the Projector...

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

right below the screen. my screen is 72 x 54, dropped from the ceiling with a 12" black header. this give me (96-12-54=) 30 inches or so from the floor. lots of room for the center channel.

Mark_A_W · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:13 am Post subject:

I don't understand any of those dimensions.

But when you watch a 2.40:1 movies (as most are) your sound is coming from a long away from your image.

And the centre speaker should be identical to the L and R, and it should be standing vertically, not horizontally.

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

sorry, i just kind of dashed off those numbers... you asked where i put the center channel - i put it right below the screen, there is about 30 inches from the bottom of my 4:3 screen to the floor. my center channel is only 10" tall (36" wide) so there is lot of room for it under the screen.

my center is a Martin Logan Logos. all of the ML centers are wide not tall. my fronts are 5' tall (MartinLogan CLS) and if i were to have an identical center, i wouldn't be able to see the screen Smile

the Logos can tilt up and down and this allows the height of the center channel sound to be lifted or raised as you desire. you are right in that with no tilt, the voices seem to come from below the screen, but with the correct tilt, the voices come from the center of the screen. since movies are vertically centered on the screen regardless of aspect ratio, the center channel sound always comes from the correct place

cheers

Mark_A_W · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:23 am Post subject:

LOL, no I don't understand those dimensions because they aren't metric. Wink

"but with the correct tilt, the voices come from the center of the screen".

No, they don't.

Tilting the speaker changes the frequency response. It doesn't perform magic.

With a 16:9 screen, or a 2.40:1 screen, the front speakers can be identical, and all at the same height, or close to it.

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

changing the direction of the speaker does change where the sound images . that's one of the reasons why speaker positioning is important in locating the sweet spot. next tiem you're listening to some 2 channel mix, change where one of the speakers is aimed, you should notice a change in the imaging.

this is even more so on a horizontal electrostatic center channel.

now, even if i did get a matching speaker fot the center channel (1.5 meter tall in my case), it would still have to be below the screen or it would block the screen. most center channels are long and wide and designed to go below the screen.

nettwerkjohn · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:20 pm Post subject:

my samsung WILL output un-anamorphic 4:3 over hdmi, but ONLY at 480i. normally i have 1080p out, into the ruby. non-anamorphic w/s is heavily windowboxed, and the ruby won't re-scale the image (that is at 1080p) aaaagggghhhh. i used to have to set the output to 480i, then change aspect ratio on the ruby, then change it back afterwards. big hassle.. so i stopped watching non anamorphic w/s material. problem solved.

out of this chaos, along comes the xbox 360 which exhibits none of this stupidity, so i use it.

Smile

RobertMfromLI · Joined: 29 Jun 2009 Posts: 114 Location: West Islip, NY