Widescreen TV

OK, recent discussion about widescreen formats and letterbox (bars top and bottom) and pillar box (bars on the sides). And the person was saying how he hates letterbox and always zooms to get rid of the bars, but he doesn't mind bars either side on a 4x3 picture. Personally I don't mind a letterbox picture but hate when there are bars either side.

So which irritates you the most?

Letter box and pillar box are both annoying,but worse is a 4:3 picture stretched into 16:9 widescreen so that nothing looks right. As used by virtually everyone with only non digital reception.

Panscan is by far the most
annoying and film destroying
version to watch.

Have no issue with letterbox
apart from why didn't they
make widescreen TV the exact
ratio as cinema ?!?

Originally Posted by alfafamily

Letter box and pillar box are both annoying,but worse is a 4:3 picture stretched into 16:9 widescreen so that nothing looks right. As used by virtually everyone with only non digital reception.

exactly!

What i dont understand is why widescreen took so long to come around when it is the natural format of everything ever filmed. Why were we changing it to 4:3? Totally bizarre.

To answer the question, pillarbox gets me going. Letterbox is fine.

Good article here:

Caveat Emptor - Collecting DVDs - 16:9 is Coming Your Way

Wiki has a good example on the evil pan 'n' scan:

Pan and scan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Nev

why didn't they
make widescreen TV the exact
ratio as cinema ?!?

I've never understood that either. Why bother introducing the widescreen sets and still have letterboxes?! When I got my first widescreen I thought there was something wrong and spent ages trying to sort it out.

Pillar boxes don't bother me so much, it's the letterbox that's crazy because you've got all this real-estate of screen not being used when it should, but 4:3 native videos never had anything there in the first place.

Letterbox is fine with me. Can't stand pillarbox meself.

Originally Posted by Alfaspeed

What i dont understand is why widescreen took so long to come around when it is the natural format of everything ever filmed. Why were we changing it to 4:3? Totally bizarre.

To answer the question, pillarbox gets me going. Letterbox is fine.

The original film aspect ratio was 1.37:1 and when TV was developed it fitted to this with a ratio of 1.33:1.

It was after TV was developed that cinema started to adopt widescreen ratios, and for film this can be done by changing the lens of the camera to squeeze a wide picture onto the same piece of film and then change the lens at the projector end. Not something you can do with TV.

You would never guess the training I am doing at the moment

it's all ******** just a ploy to get you to buy a bgger telly

Originally Posted by GhostyDog

it's all ******** just a ploy to get you to buy a bgger telly

Let's face it, the stuff that is being put out now will look rubbish no matter what. Widescreen, or HD won't make a s*** program any better!

Originally Posted by EddieGTA

Let's face it, the stuff that is being put out now will look rubbish no matter what. Widescreen, or HD won't make a s*** program any better!

Kudos to that, SKY+ has been a godsend though, set it up to record stuf I actually like then just watch that when I want to watch telly

Not bovvered either way !

Originally Posted by GhostyDog

Kudos to that, SKY+ has been a godsend though, set it up to record stuf I actually like then just watch that when I want to watch telly

Freesat's HD PVR is due soon.

Death to Sky and it's evil "Plus" !!!

Originally Posted by Nev

Freesat's HD PVR is due soon.

Death to Sky and it's evil "Plus" !!!

I bought a freesat HD receiver and it is impressive. Probably going to take it back though and wait for the PVR or buy the Hauppage DVB-T/DVB-S2 card to integrate into my media centre PC.

None of them actually irritate me to be honest...