What does an Anamorphic Lens Do? Do you need it?

[Antimonkat]

Still a little over simplified and some of the finer points of explanation are off, but you got the gist, the main benefit is increase in brightness and contrast processing, since the projector doesn't have to worry about that hard black line for black control which is helpful, using all your available pixels for light output does make a difference. Whether you increase your pixel density or resolution has a content component though. If your source is either cropped or letterboxed 2.35, you aren't gaining any pixels, you're just scaling it up to utilize more light, then scaling it back down to not be distorted, at best it's a quick up sample, and you'll either not notice it, or maybe get a slightly less noisy image as a result, really though it should look about the same from a detail perspective. cropped/letterboxed 4k still has the same pixel density in the retained image area regardless of what aspect ratio it's being shown on, horizontal doesn't change, what changes is the number of vertical pixels, not their distance apart or anything. If you took 2.35 and stretched it 16:9 and kept it there, you actually get less pixel density. The only time you would lose pixels and resolution though, still not really density is if you had pre stretched anamorphic content, which dvd used to do, I honestly don't know about blu-ray media, (I assume it's possible some do that, but of the ones I've looked at it's all letterboxed 16:9, so those pixels you are "losing" are already gone, hard coded black) where the image is actually rendered in a 16:9 aspect, distorting it vertically but taking up all the pixel resolution possible, and where a DCR stretches it out horizontal to correct it back to normal, vs the player keeping the horizontal dimension and adding black bars top and bottom to correct the aspect, squishing it and dropping your detail and resolution. Seams like for DVD it made sense with so few pixels to work with they needed all the information they could manage, but since UHD especially has the pixels to spare, it's fine, also more efficient codecs (and way higher bit rates) where encoding the letterbox isn't wasting sufficient bits to matter. So in short yes, extracting more brightness, which is important, and helping the projector extract more detail without having big black areas to worry about preserving (wider open iris perhaps?) but to say you are losing pixel density or resolution, let alone getting it back after from a lens isn't accurate and kind of misleading, or at least a misunderstanding (or oversimplification) of how the media is presented and encoded. What I still don't really understand is how it presents 16:9 content with it in place. Does it squish it horizontally to maintain aspect ratio without a stretch (introducing side black bars) or are you forced to watch 16:9 stretched horizontal to fill the screen? I mean the DCR lens has a fixed distortion, so it isn't going to manage native 16:9 vs 2:35 any different, it can't tell the difference anyway, it's just a lens. And if you add a system to mechanically move the dcr in and out of the path, well, thats even higher end and more money. I assume this is where the Lumagin comes in, to detect native aspect and distort as needed for the desired fill.

[kafv]

What about movies that goes between both ratios? The Dark knight rises, Transformers etc.

[sammie_prescott]

I love my DCR though I’m pretty sensitive to barrel distortion so I’m going to also pick up a ISCO IIIL since it’s pincushion distortion.

Best combo yet is still a DCR and Lumagen by far. Using it on my Stewart screen with RS3000 and it’s sooo good.

[sumitagarwal]

Great content. And this guy from dream media team is the most knowledgeable and best presenter

[andysummersthxcinemaandmyc]

Oh I did the real thing when projectionist flipping the w/s over to scope and it is a lot more than that, that has to be done in less than 10 seconds.
trailer ends in w/s - feature is scope - close the doser or fade light off on the film mute sound on Dolby CP - open masking to scope - change the aperture plate from w/s to scope - flip w/s l flat lens over to scope - keeping eye on the blank film because behind it is the main feature - sound format needs to be switched from format 04 to format 10 - keeping hand on the doser and waiting till main feature enters the film gate then slowly fade the doser, light up onto the film and unmute sound on Dolby CP and slowly turn fader up to 6.5 (oh seems all you lot ain't gonna have it at Ref 85, cos mostly no cinema never often plays a film at Ref level) - focus on bbfc then wait till actual film is on screen and if needs focus again then focus it on any opening credit text for sharpness. Now go onto the next screen and get it threaded and laced up.

also these home theatre lens is a rip off. an actual scope lens is so cheap on ebay and all you need is the lens optic and fit into a new simple wooden housing to place in front of the projector when it is set at 4:3 stretched vertically with very little black bars.
In fact there are black bars or rack lines for scope they are so thin. w/s has thicker black rack lines but the aperture plate on the 35/70 hides or masks it as it just a metal thin plate that slides horizontally in/out between the film gate one for scope the other for w/s, which is common another aperture plate for academy ratio or 1:33:1 will be kept in store room as it is so rarely used.

so everyone don't get ripped off on these home theaatre anamorphic lenses, just go ebay look for 35mm scope lens some are often less than £ $ 100 there will be silly greedy people asking few grand but truth is those lenses are no longer used anymore only few handful of 35/70 cinemas are still around now the tens of thousands of other 35mm only have rubbish 4k tv projection.

I have a russian anamorphic lens that was £65.00 that is how cheap they are now. and I will never be caught playing any marvel rubbish movie disc in my home. I hardly now buy any new movie or even bother now to watch for free any new movie now. I just play the older ones that still look new cos there is no wear on the disc and I rather look at a movie with scratches and blemishes over some rubbish 4k scan that has DNR EE degrained plastered all over it with botched colour and botched Near Field atmos re-mix that has no dynamic range and has frequency filtering reducing bass slam bass kick bass depth. I'm done with 4k as 4k is a Scam.

[bradlee]

It would be nice to demonstrate the full user experience when watching a Blu-ray disc. Perhaps demonstrate the downside of navigating a menu and then watching a widescreen format movie vs the same experience when watching a 16x9 movie. A demonstration of the actual user experience would be more valueable than a talk-thru with only a partial demonstration. And then ultimately, what options are aviable to overcome the downsides of navigating this complexity. Is there any option short of a video processor such as a Lumagen?

[romeocasanova]

Hey is it possible to place anamorphic Lens to a ultra short throw projector??? Have they came out with such a lens yet???

[mitchellnino_]

Would be good if you could recommend some screens with the JVC's. Didn't quite get what you were trying to say with the Black Diamond Screen.

[brucesmith]

Is there a lens like this that can be used with "lifestyle" type of projectors like the JMGO N1S Ultimate or the Valerion Visionmaster. I don't think either has an anamorphic mode.

[sunilpopat]

I have full hd projector viewsonic pg705 hd.
Anamorphic lens need or not?

[reneauds]

Getting a JVC nz9. Do I need or should I do a pan lens? Also looking for a new screen to pair up. I have light control total blackness but the wife likes having curtains partially open to get airflow especially in the summer.

[shaolin]

3:54 well duh, your 4k projector will still be showing more resolution even with the "wasted" bars vs starting with a 1080p projectors...

[jasonwhite]

Great explination Chris and thanks for taking the time to do this!

[beastscinema]

Greatinfo Chris I sent out a message a while back about explaining me what the difference were with the anamorphic lens from 235 to 16 by 9 now I know I don't have to take the lens off to get 16 by 9 to keep it on and get 235

[roco]

Thatsss what they are!! Okay, glad I don’t need that since I plan to do 16:9 screen since that’s mainly what I watch

[HemanthVlogs]

For Epson LS12000 or Sony xw5000 es do we need this anamorphic lens. Can anyone advice for 16:9 screen.

[ark]

How much does this lens cost? My PJ does not have a memory setting will the DCR lens work with it? My PJ is a Benq W2700.

[CaseTheCorvetteMan]

Point in fact unless your projector is actually 4096x2160, you were never watching true 4K anyway, you were watching Ultra HD. There is a difference.

But anyway, fact of the matter is the width of the image is STILL 3840 pixels, which is what you and almost everyone else erroneously call 4K, so you are STILL seeing your Ultra HD image.

You may be missing a couple hundred lines, but unless the movie was put on the disc in anamorphic wide, all you're doing is scaling the image vertically to fill the fixed pixel grid (which never really works very well unless you're scaling 1:2 or similar)

Aspect ratios are a RATIO, not a multiplication. It is not 16 by 9 unless that is the actual physical size, it is 16 "is to" 9, 16:9 is an aspect ratio, 1.78:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2.40:1, 4:3, 5:4 etc are aspect ratios, 16x9 is a size.

As much as i like the videos from you and a couple of the others, i really do wish you'd get the basics correct.

[vestel]

What projectors would this lens work with? Will it work with for say LG’s Laser Projectors????

[blueflame]

Great video keep up the good work, it was worth the info thks.