XBox Widescreen and DVD - PLEASE explain to me...

[PlayingKarrd]

This is a stupid question and I know so, but it is something that has been bugging me for eons and I just CANNOT work it out, and that is to do with playing DVDs on Widescreen TVs with the XBox.

So ok, let me lay it down first. I have a widescreen TV and it runs several modes which include 16:9, the mode you'd expect to watch Widescreen in, 4:3 which is normal TV mode and Cinema which is like 16:9 but stretches it to the top and bottom to remove black borders that might appear.

However, here is the conundrum, just HOW do I watch my DVDs in proper full screen format on my XBox?

I used to run my DVDs through my PS2 and generally what I had to do was run the DVDs in Cinema mode to get them full screen. A few exceptions like Saving Private Ryan ran in full screen in 16:9 though. But I have my XBox set to widescreen mode under the MS Dashboard and so my games are all Widescreen. However, when I come to run movies, they are running nice and fine in 16:9, but there is a letterbox effect on them. Sticking on Cinema makes it distorted now.

Surely if a movie is running letterbox format it is supposedly widescreen? So why do I see borders on normal 16:9? And why are there borders on 16:9 on my XBox yet my PS2 will run it distorted in 16:9 but fine in Cinema and no borders.

I know what I just wrote is probably confusing, and that is because the whole thing is confusing me! If someone could please clear up this conundrum for me I would forever be in your debt

Thanks for your time and look forward to the replies.

[harryb]

its no confusing but its also happening to me and it seems really annoying soomeone answer soon

[cobalt]

not sure if this is your problem but it could be,

there are two types of widescreen 16:9 which is what your telly is. however even this is not as wide as a lot of films are filmed, so what happens is that you can get a "super widescreen" dvd where the aspect ratio is 2.35:1. this results in bars at the top and bottom of even a widescreen telly.

if you want more information a link i just googled for which appears to cover this is: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...reenorama.html

(as always any HC nuts feel free to correct)