DVDs, Blu-Rays, and Aspect Ratios

For those who are new to the world of wide-screen tv's, I wanted to fill you in a little bit pertaining to what I have learned.  Many people, when getting a widescreen tv, think that having a widescreen means that they're going to get a picture from a DVD or Blu-ray that will fill up the whole screen.  For those of you who have them, however, you have realized that's not always the case.  It wasn't until I did a little research that I found out why.

Widescreen format movies, in order to preserve their originality and not have to crop anything out, are almost always put in the same widescreen format as they were originally shot.  If viewing on a widescreen, and that media was originally shot in 1:78:1, you're going to get an image that fits to a standard 16x9 perfectly.  If the movie was shot in 1:85:1, you're going to get VERY tiny (Barely noticeable) little black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

If, however, something was shot in 2:40:1 or 2:35:1, you're going to get REALLY big bars on the top and bottom of the screen.  Unfortunately, many things are being shot in this later mode and, let me tell you, those bars are ANNOYING.  Hopefully movie makers will learn from this.  I mean, duh...if everyone's screen is 16x9, then wouldn't it make more sense to have everything filmed in 1:78:1 or 1:85:1?  The Avengers, a modern release, seems to have been shot in 1:85:1, and I am SO glad.  I mean, I got a big screen t.v. so that the WHOLE screen could be used, you know?