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Post #342663

Author
Gaffer Tape
Parent topic
[hdtv] -> _superwidescreen_phillips_21:9_2:35-1_tv_
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/342663/action/topic#342663
Date created
20-Jan-2009, 6:08 PM
Jay said:

I don't think you guys are quite getting this. It's meant to mimic a constant height setup, which is what decent theaters employ when displaying movies at different aspect ratios.

Nothing should be squished or cropped at all. Scope films should take up the entire screen when properly scaled, and if the Blu-ray author has a brain, the subtitles, if not already burned in, should appear within the image. Placing subtitle info within the black bars is a holdover from the laserdisc era that was wrongfully passed on to DVDs and probably a lot of Blu-ray discs.

All other material should be displayed at the proper proportions with sidebars just like they do in the theater with curtains; nothing should be cropped.

Constant height setups are the shit in the front projection world and I hope to have one someday. In the meantime, this is a cool solution. I hope we see more displays like this.

Quoted for truth.  Nearly everybody on these boards should have at least some experience with this, since Star Wars movies have been placing the subtitles in the matte for years!  I remember one of the often brought-up problems with the GOUT was that, when you zoomed in to watch it on a 16:9 TV, the subtitles were cut off!  If they had been in the pictures (as opposed to in the matte) and (preferably) burned-in, there would not be a problem (of course, it should go without saying that it wouldn't solve all of the GOUT's problems).  You can't blame the television for shitty ideas in the home video market. 

I only have a few gripes about this 21:9 concept.  The above was one of them.  Another is a silly personal problem about lack of space.  And the final reason also ties into Jay's argument.  If you think 4:3 images stretched out to 16:9 look disgusting, wait until you see Joe Six-Pack Consumer stretch out an episode of Happy Days into 21:9 because he doesn't want to see those black bars!  Again, though, that's the fault of the consumers, and you can't blame the television for that.  I think it's a great idea, although I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'd actually consider getting one in the future.