Craig Birkmaier wrote: > > I think that wide screen, introduced in the mid > > 1950s, came about because it was *nicer*, not just > > because TV tubes were mostly square (round tube, > > squarish viewing hole). > > There is a mountain of information available that > specifically cites the need to differentiate the > movie theater experience from TV, as the primary > motivating factor in Hollywoods move to wider > screen aspect ratios in the '50s and '60s. > > Here is a very good web site with an accurate > history of what happened... > > http://www.northern.edu/wild/th100/flmhst.htm If you bothered reading the site you quote, you would see nothing to contradict what I said. It talks about Cinerama, Cinemascope, and Panavision. It doesn't seem to mention the more common 1.85:1. And all they say about the wide ratio is that it made a huge screen: "Both Cinerama and CinemaScope attempted to 'pull the audience' into the action of the film by projecting the movie on a huge screen. The deeply curved Cinerama screen at New York's Broadway Theatre was 78 feet wide by 26 feet tall -- more than 2000 square feet. The average Cinemascope screen installed in the local "movie palace" was about 42x16 feet (nearly 700 square feet), considerably larger than the 20x15 foot (300 square foot) sheet it replaced." I guess that "pulling the audience" is something that TV should not be allowed to do, then? You must be under the impression that they could have better filled the front wall with a square screen? Amazing logic. [On IMAX] > So why did they decide instead to stretch it > vertically, actually moving to a more narrow > aspect ratio...NARROWER than what Bert calls > SQUARE TV (i.e. 4:3). Most new iMAX theaters > have a 1;1 aspect ratio Bert. I already explained the reason, and it's entirely OBVIOUS. IMAX theaters were the first ones with a dramatic form of stadium style seating. So the front wall came out square. New theaters are also stadium style, but the seats are not arranged as vertically. Ever been to the movies in the past 15 years, Craig? How many times? Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.