[opendtv] Re: Learning From the Veterans - local news in HD

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:55:00 -0500

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

>> If the HDTV picture must be set up to use common sides with a 4:3
>> aspect ratio display, and if that content is also to be viewed
>> intelligibily in analog CRTs (which is THE reason for supporting
>> 4:3 TV anymore), then the content displayed in the horizontal
>> dimension is not going to be any more than the content that can
>> intelligibly be displayed on an old analog set.
>
> Yes the horizontal content is the same, but the resolution IS NOT.

I chose my words carefully each time, Craig. I said that you can't take 
advantage of the HD resolution, and I believe I also said that the effect is 
more like looking at the image through a microscope. Or if I didn't say it, I 
thought it.

Of course you see more detail. And that's actually a benefit in its own right, 
but it's not all that you can do with HD. For example, when watching football, 
you will not see more of the playing field than the guy watching on the old 
analog set, *if* you stick with the common sides rule. So you will not be able 
to take full advantage of what HD has to offer.

> Sorry, but you are incorrect. Common sides allows the PROPER
> creation of both HD and SD versions with new information entering
> both frames at the same time from the sides.

Which is exactly why you can't full advantage of the HD. It's not so hard to 
grasp, is it? It works exactly the same way on your computer. Change the 
resolution setting in the video card. What is the effect you see? The higher 
the resolution setting, the more text or graphics you can fit in the monitor. 
By sticking religiously to the common sides approach, you are in effect always 
setting your HD monitor to sub-VGA modes. Plenty of detail, but no more text 
than that old NTSC TV monitor could handle. I know we all agree on this, and 
yet you and Mark keep telling me I'm wrong. Nonsense.

> You need to think like a cinematographer or videographer. When
> working with multiple aspect ratios you need a common safe area
> which needs to include the information that everyone must see.

Of course. Now ask yourself this:

If you are a videographer and you're shooting a football game, or a documentary 
that shows landscapes,  for HD and SD consumption, why would you religiously 
stick to the common sides rule? Why not instead allow wide screen sets, which 
are by the very VAST majority HD sets in the US of A, to gather more horizontal 
content than the 4:3 (aka analog) sets? Do you really need to show players 
entering and exiting the sides of the the screen at the same time, in 4:3 and 
16:9? No.

> Fox is a broadcaster.

Sorry, you are incorrect. Fox is the network, and may or may not be the 
broadcaster in your market. When this business about letterboxed Fox prime time 
came about, I was informed that the NETWORK policy for Fox was to not use 
letterboxing.

Bert
 
 
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