1.85 movies in CinemaScape mode

[zatchury]

I’m new to Kaleidescape. I’m using a Strato. I run in CinemaScape mode, because I use an anamorphic lens and a 2.35 screen.

I’ve watched several 2.35:1 movies, one 2.20:1 movie, and a couple 1.33:1 movies with no issue.

Tonight I fired up my first movie in the 1.85 aspect ratio, Mommie Dearest. It’s slightly letterboxed inside a 16:9 frame. But the weird thing is that in CinemaScape mode, K is stretching it. It’s as if K thinks the file is 1.85 and it’s attempting to resize it to fit pillar-boxed at the right width and height for that ratio. (K does this for the 2.20 movie I own — Tenet — successfully.) But since the file isn’t actually 1.85 but 16:9 with a letterboxed 1.85 image, the calculation is wrong.

I can prove this isn’t my eyes playing tricks, because the image bleeds over my 16:9 side masking. When I switch the Kaleidescape out of CinemaScape mode back to 16:9 default mode, the image fits neatly inside my masking.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it possible K is using the 1.85 metadata to resize the image incorrectly for CinemaScape? Could it just be this one movie? Have I done something to cause this?

Thanks in advance for indulging my question!

 

[MikeKobb]

Hmmm. I'm scratching my head on this one a bit, because I'm not completely sure what you're seeing. When in normal, non-CinemaScape mode, a movie with a 1.85 aspect ratio looks, as you noted, slightly letterboxed. The image is the full width of the frame, with very small black bars top and bottom.

When you play that movie on your system in CinemaScape mode, you've reported that it's wider than 16:9, as evidenced by the image spilling onto the side masks (which I presume are at exactly the 16:9 position). Are you still seeing thin black bars top & bottom?

Can you describe, also, the image chain from your player to your projector? Is there any additional video processing involved?

 

[andy]

Seeing what happens with another 1.85:1 movie would be a valuable data point. Something is not adding up.

Andy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zatchury]

Thanks, @MikeKobb and @andy, I appreciate your responses. As it happens, I have another 1.85:1 movie on deck, so I will see if I can reproduce it with that movie. If so, I’ll take photos. If not, it may have just been a glitch with Mommie Dearest.

I did see slight letterbox bars in the image that spilled over, which is what makes me think the metadata and not the dimensions of the image itself were being used to calculate.

As for what’s in the video chain, I don’t use a video processor, so it’s just the Strato going into an HDMI switcher which then feeds to the projector. The projector is an Epson with a Panamorph in front of it. If I can reproduce, I’ll make sure to note the settings of the Strato and the projector along with each photo I take.

 

[J.Green]

I did a quick test here (using a Samsung display rather than a projector) to compare the output of Mommy Dearest (1.85) and an episode of The Sopranos (1.78).

With my Strato in CinemaScape Anamorphic mode, the left and right edges of the picture for both the 1.85 and 1.78 content were in the same place. The 1.85 picture has slight letterboxing at the top and bottom edges of the picture as expected.

EDIT: Nevermind. My original quick test was faulty.

We do have a known issue that we're tracking internally for this problem. I don't know when a fix will be available. In the meantime, the only work-around I can suggest is to have your control system programmed to keep the screen mask fully open for any content that has an aspect ratio greater than 1.78.