| cinema |
DVD mastering process whereby a film source with an aspect ratio greater than 4:3 usually also greater than or equal to 16:9 is transferred to the DVD video master in such a way that the picture is vertically stretched by a factor of about 1.33 e.g. if the picture had an aspect ratio of 16:9, it now has one of 4:3. The idea is to use as much resolution of the video master as possible so widescreen pictures use the 4:3 frame optimally, gaining another 33% of vertical resolution and looking markedly sharper. When playing a DVD with anamorphic widescreen the display 16:9 capable TV or projector and screen has to vertically squeeze the picture by a factor of 0.75 so a circle is still a circle. If the display cannot do this the DVD player will do the squeezing and add black bars on the top and bottom of the picture. In that case the additional 33% resolution are not available. |
