On 4/27/2010 3:36 PM, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Honestly, I think that if broadcasters would start going to wide screen anamorphic exclusively, that would get us just about the same effect as AFD. Certainly on 16:9 displays, which as you point out, are taking over. STBs used on 4:3 sets could give the user a choice of letterboxing or cropping.To clarify here, use wide screen anamorphic even when transmitting 4:3 content. The result is, on wide screen monitors, you get a properly pillarboxed 4:3 image always, you get a full screen display when content is 16:9, and you get letterboxed display when content is wider than 16:9. Never any distortion. On 4:3 sets, via the STB, you normally see full screen for 4:3 or 16:9 content (which is cropped). And you get letterboxing for content that's wider than 16:9. Don't know how AFD can make the situation much better.
Then you don't know what AFD can do. Here's a quick example:There's a 16:9 show with a 4:3 segment (e.g., for the recent obituary of the actor who played the Munchkin coroner, there's a segment of "The Wizard of Oz").
Without AFD, that segment on a letterboxed 4:3 TV becomes "postage stamp," surrounded by a black border. With AFD, the 4:3 TV might get the 16:9 part of the show as letterbox and the movie clip full screen.
And, if the old footage was something the producers decided could be trimmed, then AFD would allow a 16:9 TV to see it without the pillarbox bars, too.
Different people have different jobs. You wouldn't expect the person running the printing press at a publisher to edit an author. Why is it okay for TV engineers to decide what should happen to something for which there is a perfectly functional creative team?
THAT is the difference between AFD and your suggestion. TTFN, Mark ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
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