DVD with bars

I don't understand why does it differs from film to film. Sometimes I put a DVD on and it's full screen, sometimes there are black bars up and down (which I don't mind), sometimes there are black bars left and right (specially in older movies) I don't mind either, but sometime the film is basically surrounded by black bars and it just makes the image smaller, do someone knows how it works and why? (It does it with the DVD I rented for The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 and the older criterion release of the 400 Blows)

thank you!

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I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages

Do the ones without black bars say FULL SCREEN on the DVD case? That's usually why. Most movies are sold in both widescreen and full screen versions, and it an be quite easy to buy one instead of the other (or not notice either way).

I'll let another user link to one of the previous demonstrations about the evils of full screen, should they wish to to.

Depends on the license in which the film was released.


There's a number of older films which will have the black bars on either side of the screen, simply because they were filmed in 4:3 format, meaning the image isn't as wide as 16:9.


A lot of DVDs, not all of them but a lot, are digitally upgraded so even older films fit the screen properly, whereas TV channels will chop and change between 16:9 (black bars at the top and bottom) and 4:3 (black bars on the sides) depending on which version of the film they have.


It may also depend on your player.
I have a DVD of The Abyss, and when I play it on the DVD player, ie on the TV, it's perfectly fine, just has the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen... but on the laptop, it has the bars all the way around, like you said it makes the image really tiny... and there's nothing I can do about it.

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Allright thank you, I guess I will have to be more carefull about the DVD's I buy!

Check the ratio of your TV...


Most TVs are 16:9 these days, so DVDs marked "Widescreen" and "16:9" will be fine. Widescreen will just have slightly thicker bars at the top and bottom though, but the image will fit ok.


DVDs marked 4:3 or 5:4 will have bars either side, or God forbid bars all the way round.

I prefer to watch older movies with bars it's the way the filmmaker intended them to be and that's how I want to watch them, but the bars all the way round are absolutely horrible and I can't watch a movie like that.

Yeah, if there's an older film that's just a small square, that's when it's usually time to bust out the TV screen sizing options, which can usually magnify it until the height fills the screen.