[airtoast (Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2008 1:00PM]

It would be nice if they just standardized and made TVs the same aspect ratio of movies or if they made movies the same aspect ratio of TVs. I guess that would make too much sense though. That way, my expensive HDTV playing an expensive Blu-ray wouldn't have to display a shrunken picture with ghetto-looking black bars on the top and bottom.

[minimalist (Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2008 1:52PM]

Who exactly would enforce this this new 16:9 "rule"? What about the hundreds of thousands of movies, television shows that are already in 4:3, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2:65 and 2.75:1 aspect ratios? What about the concerns of the theaters who have invested in huge screens for the 2.3:5 to one blockbuster summer films while smaller budget films get shown on their 1.85:1 screens? Do they all have to submit to some 16:9 Gestapo? There is after all a zoom command if filling up those unused pixels is so important to people who freak out about "black bars". I'm much more inclined to trust the creator of a movie or TV show to make the decision about the aspect ratio over some industry standards consortium.

[Posted Jul 2nd 2008 2:12PM]

"ghetto-looking black bars" ???!?

But anyway, the problem with 16x10 is that there is NO video format that is undistorted. 16x9 doesn't match everything, but at least 4x3 or cinema sizes are matted to 16x9 as a matter of course. So, yeah, hurray for 16x9.

As far as people who think black bars are stealing their pixels, and that distorting the picture is better, I vote for taking away their TVs so that the networks don't have to make so many shows for stupid people.

[airtoast (Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2008 4:48PM]

The 16x9 law would be enforced heavily by... Team America: World Police!

Come on, that's not at all what I'm saying. I was just saying it would be nice (read: "nice") for this generation of TVs to be as wide as most (not all) movies made today or for a consensus of filmmakers to agree on a common ratio for the foreseeable future. Obviously movie screens should not be cropped to 16x9 (that's definitely my mistake). Although my TV remote has a near-useless zoom function, someone will have to show me the zoom button on the PS3 Blu-ray remote (because there isn't one). But clearly it would be pointless to use due to quality compromising distortion and image cropping.

Of course I don't think black bars are "stealing pixels," and I don't advocate "distorting the picture" (Why jump to unfounded conclusions and resort to snarky, pseudo-intellectual "I'm-better-than-you" attempts at insults?).

I see there are true black bar lovers here. Personally, IMHO, I'd like to see them reduced from my daily field of vision, if possible. (read: But obviously not at the expense of the source material)

[minimalist (Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2008 9:07PM]

OK. Sorry for the harshness of the post.

You have noticed however that even 1.85:1 films don;t completely fill the 16:9 screen right? (there is still slight letterboxing at the top and bottom). So we still have 4 aspect rations in common use today (4:3, 16:9, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1)

I think this is a problem that can only be solved except by changing our expectations. There is just too much visual content from too many diverse sources to ever achieve standardization (not to mention some business like movie theaters make not want standardization). I love my widescreen TV because I have so many widescreen DVD's and even the 2.35:1 ones are a lot bigger now than they were on my old 27 inch Trinitron. But many of them still have letterboxing and its a heck of a lot better than it was on the old 4:3 tube. I honestly forget about it after a while.

On the other hand widescreen aspect ratios on computers is great for movies and TV but not so great for productivity especially if you do graphic work like I do. It won't be long before I have to buy a 30" Apple or Dell monitor because dual widescreens will be so long and skinny as to be useless.