Full Screen vs Wide Screen Title Selection

[gooftroop326]

I just bought John Wick 3 on Blu Ray, and the MKV displays over 100 title options that are 16 chapters and 32gb in size that I can copy. Is there a way that I can tell which title is full screen vs. widescreen version? Currently, I use Plex to playback my movies when shown on my TV, they are mostly in widescreen format. Is there any other recommended Andriod app/server better than Plex for owned movie playback across multiple devices/platforms?

[Woodstock]

The choices on Lionsgate titles aren't "wide vs. full", because all of the titles are 1920x1080 on BD. The choice is, "Which one of these is the real feature?"

It's really only on DVD that you'll have a choice of wide/full. On BD, you'll sometimes have actual resolutions of 1440x1080 ("full screen", with vertical letterbox bars, like TV episodes prior to 2000), 1920x1080 (16:9, like more modern TV episodes), and 1920x800 (with letterbox bars, 2.39:1 theatrical releases), but the video itself will always be 1920x1080, unless you use a program like handbrake to re-encode the video at its actual resolution.

As for playback programs, just pick something that can display 1920x1080 (or as close as your device can manage), and the player should manage it. Plex can even re-code the video on the fly if your device isn't capable of full resolution, so your hardware on the Plex server can factor in to your decisions (is this player Plex-aware?).

[gooftroop326]

Woodstock,

Thank you for the recommendation, I will check for the 1920 x 1080 format option going forward, and to also see if my Plex Media Server also has the playback option available.

[gooftroop326]

Woodstock,

Any recommendation within MakeMKV Beta on how I can set up my preferences for 1920 x 1080 when coping the blu ray disc? right now I have Batman v Superman in and the only options that I have when it comes to coping is to select a title (which normally is the file with the biggest size in this case 32.8gb). It does not show an option for real feature. Therefore when playing back on my tv, all movies are pretty much in the in widescreen format with the horizontal black bars. When I try to adjust my tv aspect, the only one that covers the full screen is Zoom which of course cut off part of the movie. This is kind of frustration to me because I find myself distracted looking at the black area's wishing that the movie fully covered the screen. Any recommendations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Woodstock]

MakeMKV is going to copy the file as it is on the disk; that will be 1920x1080 "raw". It doesn't care (or even know) how the TV renders the content.

Running the raw MKV through something like handbrake will strip off the letterbox bars, but the display (your TV) is still going to insert letterboxing to make up for the difference from its native resolution.

[gooftroop326]

Understood, I am trying handbrake now, but the copy process is saying that it's going to take like a day to complete the process, crazy slow.

[Grauhaar]

all movies are pretty much in the in widescreen format with the horizontal black bars. When I try to adjust my tv aspect, the only one that covers the full screen is Zoom which of course cut off part of the movie

Please remember, 16:9 TV have a aspect ratio of 1,78:1 (16 divided by 9). Most cinema movies uses a aspect ratio of 2,35:1. But this cannot be shown without black bars on the top and bottom of the TV screen. So if you have black bars, all is okay and the movie is in the right format on the disc and the TV shows it with the right aspect ratio to view anything. If you zoom someting is not no longer shown on the left/right. There are many other aspect ratios out, but only 1,78:1 matches the TV screen size without black bars.

I am trying handbrake now, but the copy process is saying that it's going to take like a day to complete the process, crazy slow.

Wrong parameters or the computer has not much CPU speed. With 8+8 cores I need approx. 45min for a 90min movie.

And as Woodstock says "but the display (your TV) is still going to insert letterboxing to make up for the difference from its native resolution.", so if you run Handbrake only to remove the bars, the TV keeps the original aspect ratio and add the bars again.

[gooftroop326]

Grauhaar,

Thank you for the explanation. I think the real issue is that I am not tech-savvy so a lot of the recommendations that you are telling me I do not know how to make the conversion. I need simpler step-by-step instructions like: go into handbrake and change the dimension width to 1920 x 1080, etc. I understand the concept as explained by Woodstock and yourself, but I don't know how to apply the information.

[Woodstock]

Handbrake, by default, will remove the black bars during an encode. If you select a preset with "1080" (or more) in its name, the file will end up with the same display size, but no bars. You don't have to do any "tweaking" to get this.

Example: Star Trek The Next Generation is 1440x1080, with vertical bars to make it 1920x1080. Handbrake detected the bars, and reduced the FILE and DISPLAY sizes to the 1440x1080. But my TV is still going to put black bars beside it when playing the file back. When I play it back in VLC on my UHD monitor, though, VLC uses a 1920x1080 window playing the original file, but only puts up a 1440x1080 window when playing the handbrake-encoded file.

[Grauhaar]

I need simpler step-by-step instructions like: go into handbrake and change the dimension width to 1920 x 1080, etc.
I think the real issue is that I am not tech-savvy so a lot of the recommendations that you are telling me I do not know how to make the conversion

This is not a "conversion", this is simply a bad idea.

Really? Do you want to get a full screen version (1,78:1) of an cinema movie (2,35:1)? Did you untestand what this means? I would say: No! Simple understanding test. cut a paper to 17,8cm x 10cm (this is the TV) and cut a paper to 23,5cm x 10cm (the movie). Now try to match both together. And? Success?

For this step you must cut the black bars and something on the left and right (this may include important things of the movie) and this is lost forever. For what? What is so worse if you have black bars? A TV is not the same as sitting in an cinema room. Use the TV zoom and you have the same effect, removes the bars and cuts something on the left and right.

If you want do this you must know the number of remaning vertical lines (1080 - black bars) and multiply this with 1,78 to calculate the wdith to match the TV aspect ratio of 1,78:1. Divide this by two and you know the number of pixels which must be cut on the left and right side.

[Woodstock]

Also, coming from the DVD world, there is something called "anamorphic", which is basically "fat pixels".

Full screen on DVD is essentially 640x480 with "square" pixels. When moving a wide-screen film to a full-screen media, you can either do something like BD does now (640x360 or so picture, black bars top/bottom), or define the pixels to be wider than they are tall. You can see this in handbrake when it show "storage size" vs. "display size". In this case, the full height (480) is used in storage, but the width can be bigger that the storage width, like 720 or 832.

The letterbox version loses picture resolution fairly drastically. The anamorphic version can seem rather "smeared" if you look closely at the details. Anamorphic dates back to Panavision, where detail at the sides is "there", but not as clear as the central picture.

You might ask why they don't do more with anamorphic on Bluray... the answer being that the maximum storage width already matches the maximum (at the time) display width.

[gooftroop326]

Woodstock and Grauhaar,

Thank you both, as I am good to go now. I will take a little of both of your advice by coping my movies using handbrake and if there are vertical bars, just being okay with that. It's not worth trying to force the movie to cover the entire length and width of my tv, if the encoding does not support that. I have learned a lot in this forum and I thank you for it. @ Grauhaar, I apologize if I frustrated you with my lack of technical understanding, that was not my intention. Please understand that not everyone will speak or understand the technical side of things the way that you and many others do, thus is why we post questions like these to begin with. If I wanted to feel belittled, for not being techy, I am sure I could have thought of other ways to accomplish that. I posed my question here because I thought this was a safe place to get help and not feel stupid for not knowing what I don't know. At the end of the day, I had an issue and just wanted a simple it can be done and here is how, or it shouldn't be done and here is why. @ Woodstock, thanks for explaining everything and also being patient with me, that has made this part of learning more enjoyable and helped with me reaching a decision.

- Gooftroop 326 Out