Vudu HDX not fullscreen

[bleach]

Vudu rocks.

But... What's with the black bars? Everything I have previewed so far is in letterbox format. Inception, Salt, etc. I'm definitly selecting HDX and the bandwidth test was solid green. Picture is definitely HD but everything has bars.

Am I missing something? Vudu interface is fullscreen. Is this just how Vudu is? All of my Blu-ray movies are fullscreen.

Thanks!
-Vudu newbie

[darcilicious]

That's the original aspect ratio (OAR). Most movie buffs prefer letter box to zoomed and cropped versions.

As far as your Bluray movies, it depends on how they were formatted for Bluray release. It may also depend on how you have your display set up. For Vudu, you could try a zoom type display setting, for example.

[Prospero424]

Exactly. Most TVs have an aspect ratio of 16:9, meaning they have (for example) 9mm of height for every 16mm of width.

Most feature films today have an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The only way to play back movies in this format on a 16:9 display without distorting the image is to either cut off part of the picture on the left and right sides or to use black bars at the top and bottom.

A few (and I mean very few) people still prefer to distort (squeeze) the image rather than put up with the black bars, but those people are in the distinct minority, and while some televisions can be configured to do this, no streaming services or hard media like BluRays are configured this way.

Trust me, using these bars really is the best way to handle this aspect ratio. I'm glad Vudu chose to do it this way.

[twistybox]

All of my Blu-ray movies are fullscreen.

Doubtful. Theatrical releases are most definitely not 16:9 - they're all wider than that.

Perhaps you have some zoom setting on your Blu-Ray player causing your video to be chopped on either side.

Maybe it's time to buy one of the new 21:9 TV's. I know I want one.