Have question about aspect ratios.

Recently I’ve seen a few films that appear to have been filmed in something like 1.33:1, but then are matted top and bottom to make them appear widescreen.  (You can see the matted areas as they’re a different colour to the surrounding black; in some cases the matted areas get wider or narrower between scenes too.)

In these cases, do we consider them as 1.33:1 (i.e. include the matted area in the calculation), or do we considerer just the portion with the picture in it with respect to determining the aspect ratio (i.e. ignore the matted area)?

Thanks as always for your thoughts  -  Paul

Quoting widescreenforever:

Quote:
which films..?  wondering if you are looking at 1:66 type films .. I don't know of any 1:33 films that have a black border around them  as is window boxed/ or letterboxed films do when aspect ratio causes this effect to be added ..

Hello.

Maybe I didn’t explain myself quite well enough before.

Any 1.33:1 DVD I watch on my (widescreen) TV has black borders on the left and right of the picture, but the picture reaches the top and bottom of the screen.  (Non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs always have black bars around all four sides.)

In the cases I originally posted about here, I can clearly see the original 1.33:1 (actually its 1.32:1 when measured using JRuler) image reaching the top and bottom of the screen, as the matted areas at the top and bottom are a sort of dark brown.  (It also has the black bars to the left and right of the sort of size I would expect for a 1.33:1 image.)  If I exclude the matted areas, the Aspect Ratio varies from scene to scene (as the size of the mattes change), but is around 1.85:1 most of the time.

I think I understand what you're saying about 1.66:1; these can often have black bars on all four sides if not anamorphic (which a lot seem to be).  I actually spent all afternoon looking at 1.66:1 images and they're quite a different shape.

I have my TV, DVD players etc, set up so they don’t distort, stretch or magnify the image from the disc.

Paul

Not sure what you're talking about. You always only include the picture area. Otherwise, all films would be either 1.33 or 1.78 because those are the only native shapes allowed by DVD. The rest is always matte.

Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

Quote:
Not sure what you're talking about. You always only include the picture area. Otherwise, all films would be either 1.33 or 1.78 because those are the only native shapes allowed by DVD. The rest is always matte.

Just saw this.  In that case it makes the answer very simple then and for a logical reason.

Thanks.

Agree with Ace as well.

Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

Quote:
You always only include the picture area.

But not in the Images from movies for dvdprofiler galleries.

Quoting SpikyCactus:

Quote:
Quoting widescreenforever:

Quote:
which films..?  wondering if you are looking at 1:66 type films .. I don't know of any 1:33 films that have a black border around them  as is window boxed/ or letterboxed films do when aspect ratio causes this effect to be added ..

Hello.

Maybe I didn’t explain myself quite well enough before.

Any 1.33:1 DVD I watch on my (widescreen) TV has black borders on the left and right of the picture, but the picture reaches the top and bottom of the screen.  (Non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs always have black bars around all four sides.)

In the cases I originally posted about here, I can clearly see the original 1.33:1 (actually its 1.32:1 when measured using JRuler) image reaching the top and bottom of the screen, as the matted areas at the top and bottom are a sort of dark brown.  (It also has the black bars to the left and right of the sort of size I would expect for a 1.33:1 image.)  If I exclude the matted areas, the Aspect Ratio varies from scene to scene (as the size of the mattes change), but is around 1.85:1 most of the time.

I think I understand what you're saying about 1.66:1; these can often have black bars on all four sides if not anamorphic (which a lot seem to be).  I actually spent all afternoon looking at 1.66:1 images and they're quite a different shape.

I have my TV, DVD players etc, set up so they don’t distort, stretch or magnify the image from the disc.

Paul

By having your 16 x 9 TV set for NO distortion  you will get black bars on both sides and of course the image will naturally fill top to bottom with image ..
If you zoom the image ( distort) the 1:33 ( no such thing  as 1:32).. wll now fill your 16 x 9 frame ...

My favorite of that type is "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music"  ranges from 1:33 to 1:66 to 1:85 and 2:35 ... 
Keep the HDTV to Normal viewing and being anamorphic The film just flows nicely shot to shot ...