OT: 21:9 widescreen TV

Highly unlikely. Where would you get the software for it? And displaying narrower aspect ratios would require side panels, which are infinitely more irritating than letterboxing.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:gu9f4n$g07$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org:

Having a TV with a 21:9 aspect ratio wouldn't make any difference,as the broadcast standard doesn't include 21:9 ratio.And changing that standard would make all the current TVs and converters a problem as they would be unable to display the new format.They would not be able to have their software upgraded.

Besides,16:9 sets today don't letterbox;they display the 16:9 format full screen.They only pillarbox the older 4:3 format,and the old NTSC sets letterbox the 16:9 format.

But not 1.85:1 or wider. Those are letterboxed. (The slight overscan of most sets usually hides the letterboxing at 1.85.)

You're not dreaming. Philips announced a 21:9 set since about Jan

Never mind the TV. I want one for my computah.

Just curious, but how do you display 4:3 material on a 16:9 screen without 'side panels'?

You don't (other than stretching the image). I didn't say you did.

Right. Just wondered about the 'infinitely more irritating than letter boxing' thing. Personally I don't find material being displayed in the original aspect ratio irritating at all. Cropping or zooming to fill the screen far more so.

I find the gray panels on the side distracting in a way that I don't find the horizontal letterboxing.

The problem is that plasma displays might retain the image of the panels, or worse, burn in. Heck, I get a little scared watching CinemaScope & Panavision films.

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:gu9gtg$uri$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org:

that comes from the conversion of MOVIES(film) to video formats. No one is videotaping anything in 21:9 format.

What?

Go look again.

Not all movies are the same aspect ratio. Very few are actually 16:9.

Leonard

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in news:gu9nl0$p9r$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org:

they're called "pillars".(wiki) ie;"pillarboxing". then there's "windowboxing",a combo of letterbox and pillarbox.

You don't, you fake it an distort the image geometry, if you want to fill the screen.

Leonard

Right. You've paid for a widescreen set so every inch of the picture must be filled?

I could be wrong.

My point is that technology procreates. Once a given percentage of the population has bought into widescreen (16:9), all broadcast TV will adopt the format. Then people will start buying the 21:9 stuff, and soon enough, broadcast standards as well as DVD standards will change to that.

Look at the HDTV thing. People were buying that stuff before there was any source material for it. Next thing is going to be the 120 hz. displays. And 3 D isn't far behind, either.

Sure, the old hardware becomes obsolete. A cynic might opine that that's the point of inventing new stuff.