I was attempting to change the misaligned aspect ratio for Spielberg's A.I.  #667068-956726 and have run into a situation where a few of us here don't care what the packaging states, or a dozen and a half websites report. and that is the aspect ratio for the Theatrical release of A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) is by academy flat ratio of 1.85:1 , and  the DVD is enhanced to 1.78., meaning it has been altered by anamorphic enhanced image to just fit nicely inside your 16 x 9 box,,
No bars ..  It is the way the  the Industry would like to keep all of us fairly happy with those rotten black bars..  There are numerous websites and some good ones that properly explain this..  There are bound to be other widescreen films such as sizes 2:00 and all the way up to... (gasp) 2.89 that can be anamorphic., ( so it doesn't physically look squeezed or zoomed) but those films WILL have the notorious black bars top and bottom. I have gotten to be quite good in my years and do  not have to 'bring out a measuring tape to see what the ratio is', My eye and a properly set up monitor will be just fine for me.. ( hence my moniker) .. BUT this past day I have had a few numerous forum members here who will not take my contribution  seriously, and absolutely insist 'if they don't see black bars 'even the slightest,, from 1.85 then it has to be 1.78 .
MY argument is:  the image they are viewing is a 'mock up' that we get when we buy and use a DVD (of the same film)  that is anamorphically enhanced to fit 1.78 . In other words hook up that player without using HDMI or component wires and the image will be letterbox.. and in this case as the Box states 1.85 and numerous websites also use that ratio..
The trick word here is enhanced.., meaning it has been 'altered' from 1.85 down to 1.78 so the image is 16 x 9 ready ..     

If I'm wrong on this.. I'll change my moniker to something  else ., since that is the route a lot of us are taking these days when we don't seem to get our own way ... 

All I see on the digital bits web site is an explanation of what "16x9 enhanced" means. "16x9 enhanced" has absolutely nothing to do with the aspect ratio that's on the disc. The film may still be 1.78:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1 or whatever.

It is true that the correct AR for A.I. is 1.85:1. But that's simply not what's on the disc, no matter how you connect your player to your TV. And it's very common practice for every studio to blow up or open the mattes of an 1.85:1 film for their DVD presentation. Warner Home Video is a prime example, while Sony usually presents the film in the correct 1.85:1 ratio... with slight black bars on the top and bottom.

Thanks CPreishl, your example is very illustrative of what I've been trying to explain to Terry in PM. 

Now, if A.I. is really 1.85:1 I don't know (I haven't checked) but the least one can do is to verify the information first hand if you attempt to change an existing profile.

I guess i don't understand the problem.

If it's 1.78:1 on screen that's what I report.
If it's something else, on screen, I report that.

Quoting CPreischl:

Quote:
All I see on the digital bits web site is an explanation of what "16x9 enhanced" means. "16x9 enhanced" has absolutely nothing to do with the aspect ratio that's on the disc. The film may still be 1.78:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1 or whatever.

It is true that the correct AR for A.I. is 1.85:1. But that's simply not what's on the disc, no matter how you connect your player to your TV. And it's very common practice for every studio to blow up or open the mattes of an 1.85:1 film for their DVD presentation. Warner Home Video is a prime example, while Sony usually presents the film in the correct 1.85:1 ratio... with slight black bars on the top and bottom.

This  is 100% correct. Enhanced has nothing to do with the aspect ratio, it only means the film is enhanced for wirdescreen tvs.

If yout tv is not doing some overscan (which alot do sadly), it definitely means, if there are NO black bars it is 1.78, if there are the small black bars like in Hudson hawk, it is 1.85.
And again, of course the original aspect ratio of A.I. is 1.85, but on the DVD it is 1.78

cheers
Donnie

To measure aspect ratio I use a software player on my computer. No problems with overscan and the like, I simply make a screenshot with the player software and and devide the number of horizontal pixels by the number of vertical pixels of the visible picture.

Quoting dee1959jay:

Quote:
I can think of very few instances where you would actually need to use your home theatre to verify DVDP data. The distinction between DD Stereo and DD Surround comes to mind.

You can't  tell surround from stereo with your ears??

Quoting CPreischl:

Quote:
Top: A.I. @ 1.78:1, Bottom: Hudson Hawk @ 1.85:1, both "16:9 enhanced":

just looked over your images and scanned artwork for all three films in data  base.., besides the fact that they are Sony* brands.., No where on the box does it says 'enhanced'  only 'widescreen 1:85' .,

*Sony really doesn't care about true aspect ratio/transfers  as their video catalogue has always been throughly hacked..