Craig Birkmaier wrote: > Most new iMAX theaters have a 1;1 aspect ratio > Bert. It turns out that this more closely matches > the human visual systems field of view... Wrong again, Craig. This sounded so wrong that I did some quick web browsing. I found all sorts of unsupported quotes saying that humans see "much wider than 4:3," but I was looking for something more. This site describes the "standard eye." http://www.4colorvision.com/standeye.htm#mosaic The aspect ratio of humans vision is implicit in these comments: ------------------------------- Macula (a.k.a. Macula Lutea) Overlay of retinal area 2.0 mm. wide and 0.88 mm. vertically centered on the Fovea. Generally believed to be colored due to presence of cytoplasmic inclusions of Xanthophyll ------------------------------- The macula is the part of the retina we use to see. When the optometrist takes a photo inside your eye, the macula is the thicker and darker part of the retina. It's full of vessels, to supply blood. The "standard eye" gives the macula a 2.27:1 aspect ratio. Furthermore, as if that weren't enough, ------------------------------- Spatial pointing: Vertical 400 deg/sec Horizontal 700 deg/sec ------------------------------- Which means that even *if* the retina itself gave you a square image, the eye movements would be almost twice as effective at providing lateral coverage than they are at vertical coverage. All of this makes perfect sense, of course, because we are designed to live and hunt in a horizontal plane, not like birds. The reason wide screens are nice is because they more closely resemble the aspect ratio of human vision. 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.