15th December 2003, 2:10 PM
Okay, this might make it easier for you.
Anamorphic DVDs are DVDs that when displayed on a widescreen tv are appropriately stretched to fit the screen and you gain more vertical lines of resolution. Here's an example of anamorphic vs. non-anamorphic on widescreen tvs. I got the screens and captions from that link I posted:
![[Image: 18516x9tvlbx.jpg]](http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/18516x9tvlbx.jpg)
Non-anamorphic video as it appears on a Digital 16x9 TV. The gray bars are generated by the TV to fill in the unused portions of the screen. Using the TV's "zoom" mode, you can magnify the image to fill the screen electronically, but at the cost of degrading the image quality significantly.
![[Image: 18516x9tv16x9.jpg]](http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/18516x9tv16x9.jpg)
Anamorphic video as it appears on a Digital 16x9 TV. The "squished" image recorded on the disc (seen at top) is sent directly to the TV, which stretches the video signal horizontally until the correct aspect ratio is achieved. As you can see, the image fills the frame, while retaining its full vertical resolution. The picture quality is stunning.
Anamorphic DVDs are DVDs that when displayed on a widescreen tv are appropriately stretched to fit the screen and you gain more vertical lines of resolution. Here's an example of anamorphic vs. non-anamorphic on widescreen tvs. I got the screens and captions from that link I posted:
![[Image: 18516x9tvlbx.jpg]](http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/18516x9tvlbx.jpg)
Non-anamorphic video as it appears on a Digital 16x9 TV. The gray bars are generated by the TV to fill in the unused portions of the screen. Using the TV's "zoom" mode, you can magnify the image to fill the screen electronically, but at the cost of degrading the image quality significantly.
![[Image: 18516x9tv16x9.jpg]](http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/18516x9tv16x9.jpg)
Anamorphic video as it appears on a Digital 16x9 TV. The "squished" image recorded on the disc (seen at top) is sent directly to the TV, which stretches the video signal horizontally until the correct aspect ratio is achieved. As you can see, the image fills the frame, while retaining its full vertical resolution. The picture quality is stunning.