[opendtv] Re: 70th Anniversary Blu-ray and standard DVDs of the Wizard of Oz

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 10:11:10 -0500

Jeroen Stessen wrote:

> What you are saying is that there exists pillarboxed HDTV
> content ? Apart from the recent release of some classic
> 4:3 movies on BluRay. I assume that you refer also to 4:3
> SD that has been up-converted by the broadcaster to 16:9
> HD ? I must say that over here this is so rare, that I
> want to yell "Not A Use Case" again.

Yes, this is VERY common in the US. Why? Because in most of the multiplexes 
here, you have one subchannel that *always* transmits in 720p or 1080i mode, 
however true HD content is available mostly during prime time, during sports 
events, and now increasingly also for news. An increasing number of commercials 
are now also 16:9, by the way.

So much of the day, that 1080i or 720p is transmitting pillarboxed content that 
my TVs and STBs cannot zoom in on. And there are the occasional postage stamp 
commercials as well.

I've never seen a broadcast station change the transmission mode of its 
multicasts, by the way. Typically, the -1 subchannel is always set to HD and 
the higher subchannels are always set to SD.

(Parenthetically, I read yesterday that one TV station is starting to transmit 
2 HD 720p and two SD programs in the same 19.39 Mb/s multiplex. Not bad.)

> We have never advocated watching pillarboxed 4:3. I
> think that the chicken-and-egg problem (16:9 screens, 4:3
> content) was solved very well by our "Panorama /
> Superwide" mode.

This is disturbing, Jeroen. I would rather crop the 4:3 frame some, to make it 
look wider, that be forced to watch all 4:3 content distorted! 4:3 is still 
quite common in non-prime-time.

> You don't just watch a stupid game show on it, you put in
> the DVD (or BRD) of Slumdog Millionaire and watch a
> beautiful movie about a stupid game show.

Heh! Well said.

Ciao,
Bert
 
 
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