Cropped Black Bars and Tvs Auto Aspect ratio.

[Michael Sacci]

[Chris Reason] “TV which is set to auto aspect ratio” What is sending the TV the info on the aspect ratio? There is nothing that I could think of that could tell what is a black mask and not just part of the video.

I think is a TV/DVD player setting mismatch.

Test get a movie DVD that is not true 16:9 (most are not) and how is that displayed, are the black bars gone?

[Chris Reason]

Thanks for the response Michael.
When the Tv / DVD is set to manually view 16:9 ratio it works fine and the black bars show which is what I want. However as soon as the settings are changed to auto detect The TV removes the black bar thus stretching the image which is not what I want.

The thing is when the client is viewing the work I don’t know if their TV is set to the correct 16:9 aspect ration or is set to Auto detect. If the clients Tv is set to 16:9 then I they will get the desired effect when they can see the cropped image (Black Bars).

If the TV is on auto detect it will try and take the black bars out which is not what I want. As in post I have cropped the footage by 10% on top and 10% bottom a total of 20% so I have visible black bars for a kind of 2:1 ration look to it. What I am finding when a TV is on auto detect it takes the intended black bars away leaving an over of image quality that is reduced and stretched by 20%.

I was thinking of very thin white bars or L shapes in each corner of the screen in hope that if a TV is set on Auto detect it will notice them and thus keeping the black bars present without any stretch. But of course if that way works then perhaps i’m running the risk of visible whites lines. Thought perhaps somebody might be aware of the problem and know a work around.

[Bret Williams]

Never used an “AUTO” aspect ratio. Probably for good reason. When you turn that off does it show the way you want? Sounds like the TV is detecting the bars and stretching to fill the screen, which would screw up your image since you’re not using 16:9.

[Chris Reason]

I know I would never personally use Auto aspect ratio but I cannon rely on my clients to do the same and expect them to have the intelligence to figure it out for the perfect viewing conditions. The easy answer I guess would be for me not to have black bars and not to crop the image but I loose that feel i’m going for which I want to avoid.

[Adam Taylor]

here’s a slightly leftfield idea…..you could try adding some small dark grey shapes in the outer corners of the frame. Make them dark enough to be unnoticed, and small enough to not be obvious, and see if that helps.

You need to find a way to convince the Auto that there is something in the black and thus not to crop it out.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Rafael Amador]

Adam’s is a very good idea.
Put just few colored pixels in the corners.
Even if they are white they won’t be visible in the DVD.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Bret Williams]

How accurate is the auto thing anyway? What if you made the black 1,1,1 instead of 0,0,0?