- 15.4 Widescreen
- Posted by Bob on January 2nd, 2004
I just ordered a Dell Inspiron 8600 with the 15.4" widescreeen
display...I was wondering how this wider aspect ratio would affect
regular playback of DVD movies...Would a regular pan-and-scan DVD be
in a vertical letterbox to fill in the extra width, or would it be
resized to normal? Would DVDs that are mastered for letterbox look
perfectly fine? Dell has been talking up this screen for excellent
DVD viewing, but I don't see how it could be that great, in that there
will most likely have to be some down-scaling and resizing of the
frame. Any thoughts?
- Posted by Michael Geary on January 3rd, 2004
Bob wrote:
All your DVDs will look perfectly fine. :-)
Your screen's aspect ratio is 1.6:1. A DVD with a wider aspect ratio (e.g.
2.35:1) will have bars on the top and bottom, and a DVD with a taller aspect
ratio (e.g. 4:3 or 1.33:1) will have bars on the sides. A DVD with an aspect
ratio of exactly 1.6:1 will fill the screen.
Native DVD resolution is 720 x 480 pixels for NTSC or 720 x 576 for PAL, so
there's no downscaling when you watch a DVD fullscreen. Your DVDs should
look very good!
-Mike
- Posted by Don Westermeyer on January 7th, 2004
Bob1472@hotmail.com (Bob) wrote in message news:<2f6deaaa.0401021122.d96d908@posting.google.c om>...
It depends on the software you use to play it. The one DVD player
that Dell ships with with either letterbox the picture or stretch it
at your option.
Other software I've used has a 3rd mode to zoom into the picture
(clipping the top and/or bottom).
