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

  • From: "Stessen, Jeroen" <jeroen.stessen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 16:15:21 +0200

Hello,

First of all, the "Goofy Movie" was a 4:3 DVD, one of a very few
that I own. If I had looked better, I would not even have bought it.
Thinking back, it is amazing that I could watch it in 21:9 at all,
without a too apparent vertical cropping or horizontal distortion.
It should have displayed with side pillars, like when I had put it
in the BR player. I still don't understand what went "wrong" ?
(I write "wrong", because I actually liked it this way, full-screen.)

Bert wrote:
> I'm saying, Jeroen, that when the TV signal is transmitted in these
> formats, i.e. 1080i or 720p, I can't make my TVs or my STBs zoom in
> correctly, ever. So for example, if that 720p or 1080i content happens
> to be postage stamp, I must view it that way. This is exactly the same
> problem experienced by Cliff. He cannot zoom in on anamorphic 16:9
> (which contains 4:3 pillarboxed content).

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. I could be wrong.
Can you please give some examples ? How common is 16:9 in the USA ?

> [About the new 21:9 Philips monitor]
>> Any 2.35:1 content that is letterboxed in a 16:9 signal format can be
>> zoomed to undistorted 21:9 full-screen.
>> SD as well as HD. Of course, the best quality is with a movie on
>> BluRay, then you have 3/4 * 1080 = 810 lines of vertical resolution.
>> This is more than enough for this screen size.

> Oh, okay, so somehow you made it work now.

The 4:3 "Goofy Movie" works in a way that I have not yet understood.

The cinematic movie content, 2.35:1 letterboxed in 16:9, has never been
a problem, because this 21:9 TV has been specifically designed for it.
The regular 16:9 programs and true 16:9 movies are slightly cropped vert-
ically, and stretched and distorted horizontally, and look well enough.
The 4:3 content is a problem, it will not (should not) fill the screen.

As we have moved to 16:9 for practically 90% of the content, and I have
plenty 16:9 (!) TVs in the home for what little 4:3 content remains,
I think of it as a non-problem. It's not like I would watch "Tel-Sell"
on a 56" TV, that deserves to be watched on something like a 5" screen.

> So here's the deal, Jeroen. What always made 16:9 an attractive choice
> was that we knew, even before 1994, that before too long, most new TV
> programming would be adopting this aspect ratio. So even if you had to
> watch a lot of pillarboxed content initially, the situation would
> rectify itself in due course.

Whoa, hold it. 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. It gives 90% of the 16:9
experience, and on plasma panels it avoids the uneven burn-in too.
(I may have told you that the original solution for distorting the
 horizontal deflection of a CRT was introduced by JVC, but patented by
 RCA, and we had rights to use that patent through a cross-license.)

> With 21:9? Aside from the DVD or BDs of 2.35:1 (letterboxed) movies,
> will TV productions be migrating to Cinemascope format anytime soon??

Most likely never, except indeed when they broadcast letterboxed 2.35:1
movies. With SDTV this was not so attractive, but with 576p or better
resolution we can afford to lose 25% of the lines and up-scale in the
receiver. Especially 810 active lines in a 1080p format looks more than
good enough. Many if not most of the movie BluRay discs are just that.
For all the other real-16:9 content, we can blow that up to 21:9 too.
I can tell you that most 16:9 576p DVDs look very very good this way.

> Or may this just be the choice for 2.35:1 movie aficionados?

That is of course our target group, also given the multi-channel Ambilight
and the fairly high price of the set. Or I could turn the argument around:
with a TV like this you tend to actively search for high quality content.
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.

Groeten,
-- Jeroen

  Jeroen H. Stessen
  Specialist Picture Quality

  Philips Consumer Lifestyle
  Advanced Technology  (Eindhoven)
  High Tech Campus 37 - room 8.042
  5656 AE Eindhoven - Nederland

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