Re: network HD errors

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 03:30:30 GMT Steve K. <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

| Both Pearl Harbor and The Two Towers were butchered in their HD airings
| tonight on network TV. As well as content, both were cropped to 1:78
| (16x9) rather than letterboxing their true 2:35 aspect ratio into a 1:78
| screen. It's a shame because in the past I've seen the networks air
| movies correctly. If this is shades of things to come, what a waste.

I assume you meant "." where you had ":".

I've already heard from many people that the dislike letterboxing because
it "make the picture smaller" (though this was in the context of going from
16:9 to 4:3). I'm afraid letterboxing won't be that popular among the
masses, especially after they buy HDTV. Many believe getting HD lets them
avoid letterboxing and see the full resolution. Obviously that isn't so
for 1:2.35 content. Unfortunately there is no standard for transmitting
1:2.35 as-is (to let the viewer decide for themselves whether to letterbox
or crop). So you're probably going to be limited to corporate decisions
to give the masses what they expected with HD. Maybe the HD-DVD releases
will do better.

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| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
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