Tech solution needed: To play DVDs in 4:3 aspect ratio

[HCIPalmer]

Hi people,

I have recently got a new Sony Bravia HD TV with a Sony Blu-Ray player and am delighted with the whole home cinema experience etc, it's really great kit.

However, I do have a large collection of DVDs that are in 4:3 aspect ratio (mainly Doctor Who etc) and as I'm a bit of a geek I like to play them as intended, without zooming and cutting out some of the frame, or squeezing and changing the look of the picture. The way the discs are authored (the BBC are restoring all of the classic TV series) is in 4:3 rather than 16:9 with black bars.

I have gleaned from other forums that this might be an HDMI problem as the Blu-Ray player only has an HDMI outlet. Can anyone advise me on a tech solution? 

Many thanks in advance,

Harry

[rooobb]

The aspect ration over the HDMI connection normally is a setting that you can decide in the player setting menu. The only problem is that you have to change it everytime you switch from a 4:3 DVD to a normal 16:9, it may be annoying

[arkie_g]

I have BDP S380 player. Could you please exactly point to menu items, which should switch to 4:3 DVD? I think I tried evrything, but the player is still on full wide screen. The aspect button on TV does is disabled with this player :smileysad:.

[rooobb]

I do not have a BD player, so I don't know which menu option you should go to set it up. Anyway, normally is under the HDMI menu setting.

[Bravia55HX]

Hi,

try going to menu on tv remote, go to settings, screen, and change 4.3 default from smart to 4.3 and see what that does for you,

[arkie_g]

Hi

I just don't know what i've changed, but the player now shows 4:3 DVD normally. Before, I've started a Network Update, may be it helped. Current settings of my BDP S380 are on the pics attached.

Message was edited by: arkie_g

Message was edited by: arkie_g

[rooobb]

I don't know if the update did something, but looking at yours screenshots it seems to me that the one you should check are:

• screen format. It says it is fixed, you should check if it enable to have variable format depending on the source (4:3 or 16:9)
  
• DVD Aspect Ratio. It says PAN&Scan that together with the fixed Aspet Ratio above and the tv type 16:9 should perform an adjustment of the output in order to fill the whole screen (so strecthing the 4:3 format to 16:9 that you want to avoid)
  

In any case if now it works, you may leave it as it is

[arkie_g · Accepted solution]

screen format. It says it is fixed, you should check if it enable to have variable format depending on the source (4:3 or 16:9)

Yes, I've checked it. The player sets proper ratio automatically.

DVD Aspect Ratio. It says PAN&Scan that together with the fixed Aspet Ratio above and the tv type 16:9 should perform an adjustment of the output in order to fill the whole screen (so strecthing the 4:3 format to 16:9 that you want to avoid)

I've checked this on a few 4:3 disks and found that some of them are shown in a true 4:3 (with black bars on X) and others are "zoomed" 4:3 filling the whole screen (with cropped Y margins). That's OK for now, later I'll try to find the way of quick switching between these two modes.

Thank you guys for the discussion.:smileyhappy: