Is there a way to mask (black) the video (the actual movie, not the menu) to 2.35:1? I just want to be able to watch TopGun Maverick on my 2.35:1 screen without projecting outside of the screen whenever those pesky IMAX scenes pop in. My projector has soft masking (JVC X35) but the masking range is ridiculously small (so basically, I cannot mask anything). And yes, I know that I could just buy a Lumagen or a MadVR-Envy, but I'm not sure I am willing to pay 7.000$ for the masking feature...
That's a shame - I have an X7000 - a couple of years younger than your PJ and it allows horizontal masking up to about 220 pixels top and bottom, so perfect for this purpose and great for Nolan movies - so I have a 2.20:1 and 2.35:1 mask preset to match the physical masks of the screen for these maddening VAR movies. The only way to do it through the Zidoo is to go to Settings/Display/Screen Ratio and set it to Ratio > 2.35 and Display Mode > Screen Cover. This will do what you want for the movie but also the same for the GUI so you'll need to turn it off afterwards. The only other option is to encode and crop the movie (which I also do on occasion) - I use StaxRip with hardware encoding (using an NVidia graphics card) and encode to 2.35:1.
Is the OP 100% sure that his projector doesn't mask down to 2.35:1? I absolutely hate variable ratio movies and my older JVC handles this beautifully. I can't imagine that JVC would gimp this feature on newer units.
As more and more of these ridiculous LIEMAX titles come out, this will be an enormous disincentive for me to update to a newer JVC...
Later models are fine - mine’s a 2015 (OP’s is 2013) and I have custom masks set for 2.20:1 and 2.35:1 to match the physical masking of my screen.
I feel that the universe is conspiring to push me to upgrade to a NP5 Thanks for the aspect ratio tip in thje settings, I use it for the menu, but you are right it can be used to cover the screen as well! perfect would be to have an option that streches the menu and masks the movie (wishful thinking). I don't aim to have a dynamic black bar detection with zoom in and zoom out like MadVR does (though that would be amazing), a static masking is good for the time being. Thanks!
100% sure there's a slider to regulate the masking range, and when set to the max I still project 20cm outside of the screen...