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

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:42:21 -0400

I prefer keeping close to the correct aspect ratio with only minimal
stretching as I don't like watching TV where all the pretty girls look
fat.   And in the USA much/most SD is sent 4:3 so pillar boxing is
common and probably best for me.

Though when it was a 4:3 source pillar boxed into 16:9 back on my old
4:3 RPTV I could zoom it using my PC so I at least didn't have to watch
it window boxed with black bars on all 4 sides.

In many ways though a 4:3 picture is so low quality when blown up on a
very large screen that window boxing actually looked a bit better past a
certain size.   I still tend to watch things like low rez You Tube
content in a window instead of full screen for that reason.

- Tom


Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
> Jeroen Stessen wrote:
>
>   
>> 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.
>>     
>
> Yes, this is VERY common in the US. Why? Because in most of the multiplexes 
> here, you have one subchannel that *always* transmits in 720p or 1080i mode, 
> however true HD content is available mostly during prime time, during sports 
> events, and now increasingly also for news. An increasing number of 
> commercials are now also 16:9, by the way.
>
> So much of the day, that 1080i or 720p is transmitting pillarboxed content 
> that my TVs and STBs cannot zoom in on. And there are the occasional postage 
> stamp commercials as well.
>
> I've never seen a broadcast station change the transmission mode of its 
> multicasts, by the way. Typically, the -1 subchannel is always set to HD and 
> the higher subchannels are always set to SD.
>
> (Parenthetically, I read yesterday that one TV station is starting to 
> transmit 2 HD 720p and two SD programs in the same 19.39 Mb/s multiplex. Not 
> bad.)
>
>   
>> 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.
>>     
>
> This is disturbing, Jeroen. I would rather crop the 4:3 frame some, to make 
> it look wider, that be forced to watch all 4:3 content distorted! 4:3 is 
> still quite common in non-prime-time.
>
>   
>> 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.
>>     
>
> Heh! Well said.
>
> Ciao,
> Bert
>  
>  
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