14:9 Television - Page 6

(July 2005)

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Pete Founding member 23 July 2005 5:23pm

Nick Harvey posted:

cwathen posted:

I doubt anyone here, even the loudest shouters of widescreen's virtues, genuinely gave such a thing the slightest thought before it existed.

Well, Chris, I certainly gave it some thought long before it was introduced.

I remember being taught about the "golden ratio" in an art lesson at school, back in the nineteen-fifties.

At that time we discussed paintings, the (then) newly introduced cinema ratios and the fact that television would never be able to widen because they'd never be able to fire the cathode rays over the longer distances. Famous last words!

I always wondered what the "Widescreen is used with kind permission on God" sticker was for on the back of my tv...

orudge 23 July 2005 6:45pm

davidhorman posted:

I'm just watching You Only Live Twice on ITV1. The film itself is 2.35:1. The opening shot was at this ratio, then it changed to 16:9 on the first cut. Then when the titles started, it cut to 2.35:1 again. Then , the picture slowly squeezed itself in at the sides so the whole of the active picture was within a 14:9 frame (black bars top and bottom).

This is something I've been vaguely wondering about. On digital platforms, are 2.35:1 films broadcast in 16:9 with black bars (giving a 2.35:1 picture), or are they cropped to 16:9? On analogue certainly, I seem to remember Lord of the Rings for example being cropped to 16:9 and then broadcast with black bars (which is better than cropping to 4:3 at least), but I was wondering if the film was cropped on digital.

Thanks,