Page 1 of Samsung 511 Quasi-Pal Widescreen ratio error!

When I try to play certain region 1 DVDs (so far, the titles in question are: Spiderman, Thirteen Days, Austin Powers - Goldmember and T2: Extreme Edition) on my Samsung 511 player, with Quasi-Pal mode off (thereby, a better picture quality), the widescreen ratio seems to change from the set ratio (like 1.85:1 or 2.34:1) to a squashed ratio of about 2.50:1.
This means I have to enable Quasi-Pal mode, which displays the NTSC type image where I can see the lines that make up the picture.

My question is: Is there any way around this?

"My question is: Is there any way around this?"

I`m afraid not - it`s to do with the way the DVD is authored, and how the player interprets it.

When you play NTSC DVDs with Quasi-PAL off, the player is supposed to perform line interpolation in order to pad out the 525 lines to 625 lines, without affecting the picture ratio. However, as I understand it, on sections authored as `menus` (which need not be menus in the traditional sense) this interpolation doesn`t happen - resulting in the squashed picture you describe.

This kind of authoring may be used to provide selectable branch points within the film itself. As far as I know, it was first used on `The Matrix`, for the `Follow The White Rabbit` features.

Mike

This item was edited on Sunday, 15th June 2003, 11:38