Help With Understanding The True Anamorphic Meaning

[SquidLips]

I have a question: Does the word anamorphic mean strictly 2.35 aspect (using the anamorphic lens) or can it also include 1.85?

When one says it's a "true anamorphic print" of a movie on DVD for instance as opposed to just "letterboxed" does it mean that the film was shot in a 2.35 anamorphic, was released once as 1.85 and now is being released in a "true anamorphic" (as in 2.35) print?

The word anamorpghic I know refers to a lens that stretches the image to camera and then allows you with the proper equipment to unstretch it to your screen but does one shoot anamorphic 1.85?

Last, when something is enhanced for 16X9 what does that mean? I thought 16X9 was essentially just a size of a TV screen (I think about 1.77) so how does one "enhance" an image (be it 2.35, 1.85 or academy aspect) to a TV size? I mean, if you show a 2.35 on it there will be black bars (just maybe not as much black as on a standard TV) and if you show a 4X3 it will have four sides of black bars. Does "enhancing" a DVD mean it will stretch/squish to fit the TV size?

Thanks in advance as this has never been clear to me.

 

[Barry_Green]

"anamorphic" means many things, depending on the context.

For shooting a movie, shooting "anamorphic" means using anamorphic lenses and an anamorphic film gate, the combination of which will give you a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. That has nothing to do with 1.85.

But as far as DVDs go, "anamorphic" means that it's rendered as a 16x9 widescreen DVD. So the 1.85:1 picture is put on the disc as widescreen, not letterboxed. "fullscreen" DVDs are rendered as 4:3 DVDs. Some DVDs render a 1.85 or 2.35:1 movie as letterboxed within a 4:3 frame.

When it says "enhanced for 16x9 TVs", that means it's a 16x9 DVD, not letterboxed 4:3. Same meaning as when it says it's an "anamorphic" DVD. It doesn't mean anything was "enhanced" about the picture, only that it was telecined to widescreen video instead of 4:3 video. A 2.35:1 movie will always have letterbox bars on it, the size of which will be determined by what shape your TV is. If you have a 4:3 TV, the letterbox bars will take up almost half the screen area. If you have a 16x9 TV, the letterbox bars take up much less room.

All DVDs will stretch/squish to fit the TV size; that's a requirement in the DVD standard. So if you have a 4:3 letterboxed DVD, it'll play on your 4:3 TV as a widescreen movie with letterbox bars. If you have a 16:9-enhanced version of that same DVD, it'll play on your 4:3 set as a widescreen movie with letterbox bars (because the DVD player squishes the footage and adds letterbox bars).

If instead you're playing it on a 16x9 TV, the 4:3/letterboxed DVD will have black bars on all four sides. The 16:9-enhanced version will fill the full screen.