Black Lines on Film Are Often Intentional
“If you're seeing black lines on a film that's probably how it's intended to be seen. Many are shot in a format wider than a widescreen TV, so by getting rid of the black bars you'll be seeing a zoomed in, distorted image just to fill the screen.”
Summary
Black bars appear because many films are shot in aspect ratios (such as 2.35:1 or 2.39:1) that are wider than a standard 16:9 TV, and they are meant to be displayed that way. Eliminating the bars requires zooming or stretching the picture, which crops or distorts the image and deviates from the director’s intended presentation.
Sources 59 searched
- Cinematic Black Bars Done The Right Way (+ Free Template Download) - FilmDaft
Black bars frame your footage within a specific cinematic aspect ratio. Maybe you want to give it a widescreen look like 2.35:1, 2.39:1, or 2.4:1 (the current widescreen standard for movies in cinema theaters).
- Black bars on top and bottom on HDTV connected through HDMI from PC running Windows 7 - Microsoft Q&A
The problem seems to be the aspect ratio mismatch on your LCD TV.
- It may be stupid question but how do I delete those black bars on the sides - Help/How To - Shotcut Forum
In Shotcut, use the Size, Position & Rotate filter to zoom the image until the black bars disappears. You can use the mouse wheel in the preview window to zoom-in zoom-out or edit the Size values manually · The black bars are there when the ...
- How to Get Rid of Black Bars on Movies (and why they are there to begin with)
I can bet most of you picked the bottom image. That is, after all, how movies shot in the "Scope" (or 2.35:1 / 2.40:1) aspect ratio are meant to be viewed. Movies shot in this ultra-widescreen format are intended to be viewed larger than standard 16:9 content, not smaller.
- Black bars are displayed on the top and bottom of the TV screen or the picture appears cut off. | Sony USA
If the aspect ratio is listed as 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, which is common for big blockbuster and epic movie, you will see large black bars on the top and bottom of the image.
- Aspect Ratio / Black Bars / Enlarge Picture – Blue Ridge
Movies shot in a wider theatrical aspect ratio may have black bars at the top and bottom (“letterboxing”). Reruns of older shows originally broadcast as a square picture may have black bars down the left and right side (“pillarboxing”). ...
- The picture looks too big, stretched, does not fit the screen, or parts of the picture appear to be cut off. | Sony AP
Check the content - The program, movie, or content you are watching may be broadcast or recorded in an aspect ratio that will not fully fill your screen or may be displayed as stretched or distorted. For example, some movie content is recorded in a 21:9 Cinema format that will display with ...
- Removing the black side bars, witout stretching the picture ? - VEGAS Pro - Creative COW
If you want to fill the frame, ... which case, you will lose parts of that image. Second, you can distort the image so that all pixels are used, by stretching the image in the dimensions where the black bars appear....
- How to strech/zoom video eliminating black borders | AVS Forum
For this wider A/R (2.39:1) to fit on your much narrower TV (1.78:1), black bars will be displayed on top and bottom, called letterboxing (black bars on sides is called pillarboxing, black all around, windowboxing). There is just no way around this, you've stumbled upon the limitations of the TV, I mean, we cannot (for the love of God, and all that is Holy) start cutting/cropping away image information by zooming. Neither should you stretch the image, making it fill your TV from top to bottom, you are distorting the image and ruining the intent of the director or the content creator/s.
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