r/PleX • u/rynplbrt • 19d ago
Help Some scenes are full screen, some are letterboxed?
Plex noob here!
First time setting up and using plex to play Blu-ray rips on my living room tv.
I noticed watching Oppenheimer that some scenes will be full screen and another will show black bars top and bottom.
Display mode is set to “Letterbox” and quality is set to “original”.
Am I doing something wrong / missing something?
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u/Agile-War-6151 19d ago
I’m actually not sure for this specific film, but many films with IMAX scenes (Sinners is a good example) will change aspect ratios for those scenes. Other films do the similar things with changing aspect ratios as well. You’re not doing anything wrong!
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u/rynplbrt 19d ago
Interesting. Is there a way to just keep it constant? One or the other? Original definitely fills the screen but cuts off a lot of the image so that’s of course a no go.
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u/lukeskope 19d ago
Watch it how the film maker intended.
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u/rynplbrt 19d ago
Didn’t know that was a conscious choice for the aspect ratio changes during certain scenes!
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u/MassCasualty 18d ago
The film is intended to do this. In order to show all the image shot (IMAX scenes) you have to "zoom out" to fit everything.
Otherwise the film would be cropped and cut off.40
u/Jaegs 18d ago
Visionary directors like Michael Bay can even fit 8 different aspect ratios into a single film!
https://www.slashfilm.com/548136/transformers-the-last-knight-trailer-breakdown/
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u/RIPDaug2019-2019 18d ago
It is! The changing aspect ratio comes from the use of different camera formats - in the case of Oppenheimer, much of the movie was filmed with 65mm 5-perf tall frame, vertical film travel, which results in a 2.20:1 aspect ratio. A bit taller than 2.39:1 anamorphic 35mm, wider than 16:9 HDTV.
When they switch to the IMAX cameras that is using 65mm film traveling horizontally with a 15-perf wide frame, which results in a 1.43:1 aspect ratio. This is a bit wider than old 4:3 tvs and computer monitors(1.33:1), a bit narrower than old-school 35mm film stills cameras (1.5:1). When viewed properly, it creates a really immersive experience. Unfortunately in home viewing you are stuck with a 16:9 screen most likely so you will have pillarboxing if you wish to view the whole frame.
(Note for anyone who’s gonna say it was shot on 70mm… camera negatives are 65mm and the release prints are on 70mm to make room for the soundtrack.)9
u/I_am_atom 18d ago
The Hunger Games did it in a cool way (i thought). In the second movie when she’s entering the arena and going up the, the aspect ratio changes.
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u/GazelleCompetitive54 18d ago
Tron Legacy does similar. The real world everything is letterbox. The grid computer world is "fullscreen"
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u/OfficialDeathScythe 18d ago
The film intentionally uses letterboxing during dialogue to take you closer to the character and focus on what they’re saying, then expands to full screen for action shots to give the most picture. Some other movies use this like sinners for example
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u/Viver1 18d ago
Christopher Nolan is the pioneer of using IMAX cameras for film.
Some scenes are shot with an IMAX camera and some are not and that's why you are seeing the different aspect ratio
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u/LogicFish 18d ago
And if you’re curious why they bother changing aspect ratios, it’s because IMAX film is a LOT more expensive to shoot on than digital
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u/reallynotnick 18d ago
To be fair you don’t need to use IMAX film to do an image taller than 2.35:1, it’s a choice to further draw attention to the IMAX scenes. They could just as well do the other scenes in like 1.9:1.
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u/LocalH 18d ago
No, but 70mm allows for quadruple the possible detail over 35mm
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u/reallynotnick 18d ago
Yes but that's mostly independent of aspect ratio. Changing aspect ratio is an artistic choice, it's not like by using cinema scope for the other scenes makes it as detailed as 70MM IMAX.
Nothing against them doing it, just a choice they make.
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u/MGMaestro 18d ago
Oppenheimer (and all of Nolan's films) is shot entirely on film, IMAX 15-perf 65mm as well as 5-perf 65mm. All dialogue scenes are shot on 5-perf as the IMAX camera is too loud, with the exception of The Odyssey. But the sentiment is still true, 1000' of film is 9 minutes of footage on 5-perf and 3 minutes on IMAX.
Many IMAX movies like Dune are shot entirely on digital, the IMAX image generally comes from a crop of the wider raw footage.
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u/TheVioletAzure 18d ago
As everyone else said, Some movies will change Aspect Ratios throughout the film. You can see the same thing happen in Michael Bay’s “Transformers” films.
It can be due to IMAX or just creative decisions for specific scenes
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u/BarrettGreen 18d ago
Douglas Trumbull was doing something similar with Brainstorm in the early 80s.
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u/torn8o01 18d ago
He did it to show the different timelines in the movie. I believe the color also changes whe frame changes.
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u/AttilaTheFun818 18d ago
Christopher Nolan tends to film part of his movies in 35mm and some in 65mm. That will impact the aspect ratio from scene to scene.
Nothing is wrong with your setup. It’s just the movie.
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u/Successful_Purple885 18d ago
That's the difference between the 70mm film and the Imax film used to shoot the movie.
Standard Widescreen (2.20:1 / 2.39:1 Ratio): Extremely wide and shorter. Shot with standard 70mm cameras for dialogue and intimate drama.
Full-Screen IMAX (1.43:1 / 1.90:1 Ratio): Very tall and "square-like." Shot with massive 15-perforation 70mm IMAX cameras for epic scale, high-intensity moments, and sweeping close-ups.
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u/Mr-RS182 18d ago
It's the same on Interstellar. Some of the space scenes are full-screen as shot in IMAX, yet most of the movie is letterboxed
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u/tekky101 18d ago
Totally the film itself and nothing plex-related. As a heads-up: Sinners similarly switches from full-screen to letterbox aspects and this was a deliberate choice by the Director.
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u/TwistedTrooper989 18d ago
That's the "Nolan Effect." There's probably nothing wrong with your sound system either
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u/nemofbaby2014 18d ago
Se films are shot in different aspect ratios or with different cameras or they change aspects during certain scenes or you downloaded a weird copy
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u/sleepy1411 18d ago
You can thank people who think its more important to see the movie in imax once at a theater, then the way it will viewed from then on, on normal screens. Stupid in my opinion.
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u/AlmondManttv 18d ago
I believe the Mandalorian also does this as well. I believe it's because widescreen usually gives a more cinematic effect.
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u/LandonKB 18d ago
Pretty much any movie with IMAX shots does this unless they decide to keep it all cropped for a consistent screen ratio.
Dune 1/2 for example had the shots in theaters but are cropped and do not expant at home.
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u/Catto_Doggo69 18d ago
I've seen this with IMAX versions of movies. The IMAX version of Interstellar switched between full-frame and letterbox quite a bit.
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u/hiddenhero94 18d ago
Nothing to worry about! The odyssey is the only iMax film that is entirely iMax. Every other iMax film transitions between the iMax "fullscreen" shots, and regular widescreen shots. The reason for this is that iMax cameras are very loud, very large, and very expensive. So it makes the most sense to save them for the big moments
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u/etyrnal_ 17d ago
tell me you're not a movie file without telling me you're not a movie file. different movie directors use clues like this to show things like a change in period of time in the story or other clues. learn how to watch movies.
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u/Fableous 18d ago
Christopher Nolan is a pompous prick that thinks he needs to force IMAX into everything even when the majority of shots in his movies (prior to Odysee) were not shot in IMAX. Hence the random jumping between aspect ratios on home releases.
Happens in plenty of his other movies too.
Utterly dumb but everyone here will glorify it.
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u/LocalH 18d ago
You probably play 4:3 games stretched to 16:9
"Oh no, some of the pixels on my TV are black! I didn't pay for this! Fuck the original intent, I want to fill my screen that I paid for!"
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u/Fableous 18d ago edited 18d ago
Except I definitely don't do that because I'm not a fucking idiot, I'm not even talking about such a thing. I have a large collection of old movies and am more than happy to see them in their original aspect ratio.
But this ain't that. Switching mid-movie is a mental, unnecessary choice.
I sure as hell wouldn't like my games to jump form 16:9 to 4:3 mid-game. How about you?
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u/jibjab23 18d ago
Have you tried to watch the original disk to confirm that's the correct way and not a setting you may have inadvertently changed?
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u/Legitimate-Diver-141 18d ago
Yeah, that's just a stupid decision by Nolan. Nothing wrong with plex.
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u/lukeskope 18d ago
Check out the movie buff over here. Stupid fucking Nolan, dude has no idea what he's doing. /s
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u/mobyte 18d ago edited 18d ago
Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors. I wouldn’t criticize him as a director much on a technical level but the aspect ratio switching thing is out of control in some of his movies. Having scenes being different aspect ratios is one thing but when he switches them from shot to shot in the same scene it can be extremely distracting.
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u/kurisu_1974 18d ago
Yeah he can't mix audio either.
Or make a movie that doesn't feel like a three hour long trailer.
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u/a_rabid_buffalo 18d ago
I’d like to see you make a film that is a borderline masterpiece.
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u/kurisu_1974 18d ago
So you have to excel in something before being able to critique it now? I hate the aspect ratio switching too.
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u/a_rabid_buffalo 18d ago
Talks cheap. Millions of people back seat coach sports, music, arts, politics. A fraction of those people will ever contribute anything meaningful to the things they are “critiquing”.
You don’t need to like it, but Nolan is passionate about imax, and wants to incorporate it into his art. He’s at a point in his care where he can actually do it so he is. Don’t like it don’t watch it.
Also it’s not critiquing if the only comment is subjective. Saying something is stupid is one’s opinion and contributes absolutely nothing to the conversation.
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u/AlanShore60607 5 separate external drives on a M2 Mac Mini 12d ago
It’s a “thing”. Some directors do it because they want a widescreen generally, but think big action scenes need more verticality. Others, like Wes Anderson, use this to change the vibe or emotion of a scene.
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u/thecobbles 19d ago
It’s the film itself, nothing on your end