Crazy Heart from Netflix on my player

[hoophead]

Recently purchased the Sony S570 and the first BD played on it was Crazy Heart from NetFlix and it would only play with the bars on top and bottom.

Called NetFlix and we could not find a resolution and they sent me a replacement and my next in line, Season 1 of Mad Men.

The replacement still would not play properly and I tried the Mad Men, just for ****s and giggles, and it plays to the full screen.

Strange, huh??

[sigma1914]

No, not strange. It's called Original Aspect Ratio (OAR). Not every movie is filmed in 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio, or "fill your screen," as you call it. Crazy Heart OAR is 2.35:1, or "bars on top and bottom."

[hoophead]

sigma1914 -

thanx for that info; I will make sure to look for 1.78:1 as my preference.

BTW, I have a good friend that lives in Allen; he works at JCPenneys

EDIT: Darn, just went thru my NetFlix queue of movies to be sent to me and AVATAR is the only one in 1.78:1 OAR

[paulman182]

Recently purchased the Sony S570 and the first BD played on it was Crazy Heart from NetFlix and it would only play with the bars on top and bottom.

That's a GOOD thing.

[BattleZone]

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp60/samsung_hd_tech/AspectRatiosWidescreen.jpg

Most action movies and "epic" landscape movies are filmed in 2.35:1, which will correctly display with bars on top and bottom on a 16:9 TV. Movies where the visuals aren't quite as important as the story (dramas & comedies) tend to use 1.85:1, which is almost exactly 16:9, and will fill the screen. And older movies (The Wizard of Oz, for example) were filmed in 1.33:1, so you'll have bars on the sides when you watch that.

All of that is normal and desirable, so that you are able to view the movie as the director intended, and not distorted or chopped up.

This is a good example of what you lose when "pan and scan" techniques are used to "fill the screen":

http://www.pgreen.co.uk/images/PanScan7BridesPan.gif