What is widescreen ?
Zac Tolley
A widescreen TV is a different ratio, 16:9. As far as extra processing and
stuff that depends on the set. The Sony Vega sets are supposed to built to
provide better electronics that make the focus at the edges the same as the
center. Not sure if this is true. I just know it's a great set.
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Zac
email: zto...@OvationOne.com
Web: www.ztolley.freeserve.co.uk
Home of 1101, Digital Stuff - Movies - Gadgets
Niz <n...@infidel.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:78fr2t$iki$1...@news5.svr.pol.co.uk...
>I always though widescreen was simply a 16:9 ratio allowing you to see
films
>in their original format, and that widescreen TV's were just screens built
>to house this ratio. However, after watching Once Upon a Time in the West I
>get the feeling that widescreen TV's do some kind of special 'edge
>processing' showing things on either side of the screen which a normal TV
>won't pick up. Is this correct?
>
>
Richard Hopkins
Niz wrote in message <78fr2t$iki$1...@news5.svr.pol.co.uk>...
>I always though widescreen was simply a 16:9 ratio allowing you to see
films
>in their original format, and that widescreen TV's were just screens built
>to house this ratio.
You're confusing two different issues there. 'Widescreen' TV's are built to
the 16:9 ratio, but a 'widescreen' TV or video presentation could be one of
a number of different aspect ratios.
Furthermore, while widescreen presentations on recorded video formats (VHS.
Laserdisc, DVD etc.) almost invariably do mimic the aspect ratio of the
original theatrical presentation, widescreen presentations on broadcast TV
are rarely in the correct aspect ratio. In the case of true widescreen
(2.35:1) films, the picture is normally panned and scanned to 16:9.
>However, after watching Once Upon a Time in the West I get the feeling
>that widescreen TV's do some kind of special 'edge processing' showing
>things on either side of the screen which a normal TV won't pick up. Is
this
>correct?
No, that's impossible. If it's not there to begin with, the TV can't create
it...
If you did an A/B comparison between a conventional TV and a widescreen, and
found the widescreen showing more side information, it's simply because the
widescreen has less of something called overscan. Put simply, that
information was also being received by the conventional set, but it was
beyond the visible edge of the screen.
Richard Hopkins,
(replace .nospam with .com in reply address)
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Send all my spam to: duise...@reichstag.org
Luis Canau
>I always though widescreen was simply a 16:9 ratio allowing you to see films
>in their original format,[...]
Er... if there are scope movies and non-scope movies how could ONE ratio
allowing you to see in the original format? There are several different
formats. 16:9 is a TV format, not a cinema format, so it hasn't much to do
with allowing you to see films in the original ratio. It's irrelevant if you
have a 4:3 or a 16:9 set. It's the 'software' that needs to respect the
original format, not the TV.
> [...] However, after watching Once Upon a Time in the West I
>get the feeling that widescreen TV's do some kind of special 'edge
>processing' showing things on either side of the screen which a normal TV
>won't pick up. Is this correct?
No, but local Sony catalogues normally suggest those kind of lies. 16:9 TVs
won't get image that was cut by the studio/distributor.
--
luis canau_______________________________
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Michael Brooke
> I always though widescreen was simply a 16:9 ratio allowing you to see films
> in their original format, and that widescreen TV's were just screens built
> to house this ratio.
Unfortunately, a film's "original format" could be anything from 1.33:1
to 2.66:1, with at least five possible stages in between. Short of
inventing some kind of adjustable TV screen, there's no practical way
round this!
I don't know the exact reason why 16:9 was chosen as the standard TV
"widescreen" ratio, but I suspect it's because it's roughly halfway
between European widescreen (1.66:1) and American widescreen (1.85:1),
which would cover the overwhelming majority of cinema films.
However, roughly 20% of cinema films are shot in a wider aspect ratio -
2:1 or wider - so the picture still has to be letterboxed even on a 16:9
television.
> However, after watching Once Upon a Time in the West I
> get the feeling that widescreen TV's do some kind of special 'edge
> processing' showing things on either side of the screen which a normal TV
> won't pick up. Is this correct?
I suspect you're confusing widescreen broadcasts with anamorphic
broadcasts.
Standard widescreen broadcasts have a fixed aspect ratio - usually 16:9
- regardless of what television you're using. Anamorphic widescreen
broadcasts are switchable between 4:3 and 16:9 depending on viewer
preference and the equipment they're using. This won't make any
difference to the TV broadcast of 'Once Upon a Time in the West',
though.
Michael
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Richard Hopkins
nizam...@yahoo.com wrote in message <78kcpc$kkj$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
>That's kind of what I meant... in some of the credits, the letters on the
>far left and far right disappeared off the edge of the screen, so I was
>wondering if widescreen TV's would show them.
Well some probably would, but it would be nothing to do with the fact that
they were widescreen.
All TV's (whether widescreen or not) are set at the factory with (if you
think in PC monitor terms) their vertical and horizontal size controls set
'too' high. This results in the edges of the received picture overlapping
the physical edges of the screen. Some have slightly more of this overscan
than others, so it's eminently possible that if you view the same source on
another TV, those credits would not be (so heavily) cropped.