I’m watching a DVD of the hilarious movie, “Waking Ned Divine,” produced in 1999, on a Sony 16:9 TV using a recent model Sony DVD player. But the movie is displayed in letterbox format with black bands across the top and bottom of the screen even though the setup on the DVD player is set to 16:9 format. How do I get this movie, or any movie, to display in 16:9 format?

 

It depends on the aspect ratio of the movie. "Waking Ned Divine" was shot in 2:35 to 1. Only 1:78 to 1 or 1.85 to 1 will occupy the whole screen on a 16:9. Depending on your TVs display options, you can zoom in, but you will be losing some of the picture, a la watching a full screen 4:3 movie.

 

The short answer is you don't. Movies aren't made in 16:9 format (1.78:1 aspect ratio). Movies are either 1.85:1 or 2.40:1 so the only way you can show the entire width of a frame on a 16:9 TV is to "pad" the vertical dimension with black bars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_...#16:9_standard

 

Ok, so why is the standard 16:9? It makes zero sense to me.

 

16:9 = 1.78:1

1.85:1 is close enough that movies fit on a 16:9 screen without any major picture loss.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_...#16:9_standard

 

Ah, ok I see now. I didn't know it was a universal thing I thought it was only the US TV system.