Anamorphic - True Wide Screen Home Theatre
The Black Bars at the Top and Bottom of Your Screen are not giving you the whole picture.
Do you hate those annoying black letterbox bars as much as we do? In fact we probably hate them even more, since we know that those black bars at the top and bottom of your screen means you've lost 25% of the brightness and resolution of your home theatre projector when watching most major motion pictures.
In order to restore the brightness and resolution, the image can be expanded vertically so that every pixel on a 1.78:1 (16:9) panel becomes active. This picture processing can be done electronically either with an external video processor (Lumagen or MadVR), with some projectors which are capable of doing this vertical expansion, and utilising anamorphic lenses from providers such as Panamorph.
Above: Standard 16:9 display with black bars
In response to this problem, lens manufacturers have created an entire line of anamorphic lenses, motors and attachment kits that enable you to regain this lost performance, ditch those distracting black bars, and start watching widescreen motion pictures in your home with the same totally involving and immersive impact they have in the movie theatre.
Above: A moveable CineSlide mechanism often fitted with a Schneider lens.
After the Projector or Video processor has done its magic to fill the image area of your projection screen the Anamorphic Lens optically restores the original picture geometry. It not only looks much larger than when shown on a 16:9 screen, it now feels like film, not video. Anamorphic lens solutions enable the delivery of a stunning True Widescreen image that fills your entire field of vision.
Above: The true intention of wide screen home theatre is finally delivered
We all should be watching movies in original Cinemascope’the way the director meant us to see it.