People who routinely stretch 4:3 format video to fill a 16:9 format screen
are NOT my kind of people !
"We're into B&D but not S&M. We met at the A&P."
right on buddy, people seem to think it is ok to do that, but stretch-o-vision is wrong.
shareI believe in giving them the benefit of the doubt if they simply don't know better (and/or don't know how to adjust their TV set). But I remember feeling so frustrated when I was being helpful and adjusted a friend's settings so that 4:3 content would be pillarboxed, and they got upset and wanted it changed back to stretch (no, it wasn't a plasma, so there was no argument for burn-in)!
shareIts like some people dont realize that people on the screen are 33% wider. But how does someone not notice? nobody seemed to cause a fuss over letterbox DVDs and LDs so why do people get so mad over pillar boxing now?
shareI play my 4:3 DVDs back at 14:9. I know a miss a tiny bit of the picture at the top and bottom, but it doesn't bother me.
"Hans, booby...I'm your white knight!" -- Harry Ellis, Die Hard
that brings up kind of an interesting point. Usually when movies are panned ans scanned, there is usually alot of room to work with on the sides because the action rarely takes up the whole side on a widescreen movie. but as far as zooming a 4:3 show to fit 16:9 is concerned, there is usually never any room to work with top and bottom wise. most HD shows that are on these days look like they were filmed in 4:3 and then cropped to 16:9 coz the tops of peoples heads are missing in all the HD shows.
shareI don't use the zoom function to make a 4:3 picture fill the whole screen, cause as you said, it cuts off too much of the picture (people's heads, etc). But with 14:9, it is only a half zoom function, meaning very little is cut off. When I use 14:9, I still have black bars on the left and right of the screen, but they are a lot skinnier cause the picture is slightly larger. As I said, I am missing a tiny bit of the picture, but it is worth it in my eyes. Even though 4:3 has more image than 14:9, I hate watching the little box in the middle of my 42" widescreen display. 14:9 is a good compromise. I don't zoom to 16:9 though, as that is TOO extreme.
"Hans, booby...I'm your white knight!" -- Harry Ellis, Die Hard