Are Bluray movies 1080p?

[makryger]

I was wondering the other day... most movies nowadays are not actually 16:9, they are 1.85:1 or 2.39:1, a lot wider than normal aspect ratio of our tv screens. As a result, we end up with black bars on the top and bottom of our screens. But are these movies really 1080p? Or more accurately phrased, is the actual movie content 1080 lines of pixels? Or does that number include all the black space?

[STC]

As I understand it, the black space is included. All 1080 lines are counted.

[barnabas1969]

I agree with STC. There's no other way to do it when you're using a digital display. CRT displays could actually change the shape of the pixels depending on the aspect ratio of the source device, but digital displays (LED, LCD, DLP, plasma, etc) cannot do that.

[richard1980]

Agreed also. The 1080 lines include both the actual movie plus the black areas above and below the movie.

[makryger]

Well thats disappointing. So in reality, these movies only have maybe 500 or 600 lines of actual movie.

[STC]

Here's a curve ball as I had always thought the same:

Feature length movies are usually stamped to dual layer 50GB bluray discs. The theory is that you can have less compression with a movie that has bars as opposed to one without. So even though the field of view is smaller the quality within the bars can be better. Especially true for action movies with a lot of movement.

It all depends on many factors including length of movie and the authoring transfer process.

[barnabas1969]

Well thats disappointing. So in reality, these movies only have maybe 500 or 600 lines of actual movie.

With your example of 2.35:1, that would be approximately 800 horizontal lines. For 1.85:1, it would be approximately 1037 horizontal lines.

Here's a curve ball as I had always thought the same:

Feature length movies are usually stamped to dual layer 50GB bluray discs. The theory is that you can have less compression with a movie that has bars as opposed to one without. So even though the field of view is smaller the quality within the bars can be better. Especially true for action movies with a lot of movement.

It all depends on many factors including length of movie and the authoring transfer process.

Yes, the black bars at the top/bottom will compress very easily since they are all one color. There may be some fuzziness at the top and bottom edge of the picture, depending on the compression block size and choices made by the production company.