Just curious.... when you watch standard def content, do you watch it in 4:3 with "side bars" or do you stretch/zoom to fill the screen.
Me? 4:3.
Me? 4:3.
Question for those who have widescreen tv's/monitors
- Thread starter DarkHelmet
- Start date
A
Amaris
Guest
4:3.
J.
J.
I try to watch it the way the creator intended me to watch it.
I watch it with side bars if it's coming from my DVR or DVD player. That way I can have the TV generate the bars, and it uses gray, not black.
With my AppleTV, though, I watch 4:3 stuff stretched, because I don't like the black bars which the ATV will automatically generate.
With my AppleTV, though, I watch 4:3 stuff stretched, because I don't like the black bars which the ATV will automatically generate.
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4:3. And the technical term for viewing with "side bars" is "pillarboxing".
Damn - thanks. I sat there during the OP for 2 or 3 minutes trying to think of the term without looking it up or going into my settings.
Suffice it to say I didn't look it up.
I always watch everything in it's original aspect ratio. The only time I ever use the zoom function on my TV is when I'm watching something on an SD channel and they decide to letterbox it, giving you a black border around the entire image. And the quality of the resultant image is... sadly quite poor.
We watch everything in it's original aspect ratio.
Keep it at the original aspect ratio if I can. My old laptop didn't have this function built-in, so older games appeared distorted, although DVD playback retained the ratios successfully. However my current computer can do this with ease. For some reason my home DVD player doesn't do this well either (it's most jarring when watching LOST's pilot episode on DVD with the commentary on, if you see what I mean).
I remember there was another thread on this subject several months ago - I noted there that while I prefer things in the original aspect ratio where possible, whenever my parents come to visit they prefer stretching the screen out. I found this an annoyance as it forced all the people on the screen to look squished and distorted. (I tend to notice this a lot whenever the aspect ratio is wrong on a particular TV broadcast - one of the strangest was a recent TV screening of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which for some reason was shown in 4:3 ratio.
)
There is a compromise setting on my TV called Panoramic where the screen is filled totally, but stretched at the sides and kept at normal ratio in the centre. In fast-paced shows with a lot of camera movement it can give a motion-sickness sensation at times. It was interesting after a while, but it looked odd overall, and in the end I turned it off.
I remember there was another thread on this subject several months ago - I noted there that while I prefer things in the original aspect ratio where possible, whenever my parents come to visit they prefer stretching the screen out. I found this an annoyance as it forced all the people on the screen to look squished and distorted. (I tend to notice this a lot whenever the aspect ratio is wrong on a particular TV broadcast - one of the strangest was a recent TV screening of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which for some reason was shown in 4:3 ratio.
)There is a compromise setting on my TV called Panoramic where the screen is filled totally, but stretched at the sides and kept at normal ratio in the centre. In fast-paced shows with a lot of camera movement it can give a motion-sickness sensation at times. It was interesting after a while, but it looked odd overall, and in the end I turned it off.
I don't normally watch stuff on my monitor, but when I do, I always pillarbox it. I also letterbox 16:9 content as opposed to stretching it to 16:10.
On my TV, I just stretch stuff out, I've just got used to it to the point that I don't notice the distortion and when I try to pillarbox it just ends up looking too narrow and squashed.
On my TV, I just stretch stuff out, I've just got used to it to the point that I don't notice the distortion and when I try to pillarbox it just ends up looking too narrow and squashed.
CaptainHawk1
Commodore
I definitely prefer original aspect if possible but a couple of years ago i got burn-in with my projection HD TV from having the gray bars and I've been stretching 4:3 ever since.
Flash forward to three weeks ago when said tv blew an IC circuit and I went out and got a DLP and even though I found out that DLP can't have burn in I have found myself taking advantage of the zoom feature (not the stretch) on the set because it doesn't work like regular zoom.
As far as I've been able to tell over the years zoom on a cable box or tv zooms in cutting off the same amount of the image on the top of the screen as it does the bottom and fills in the screen accordingly. This ultimately led often to the top half of the actors' heads being cut off.
Mitsubishi got smart with their zoom feature on my set and realized that there's usually nothing worth missing at the bottom of the screen so they made the zoom cut off more of the bottom than the top to like a 2:1 ratio from what I can tell. Hence, actors heads are in one piece, the image fills the screen and it looks natural.
Very pleased.
Flash forward to three weeks ago when said tv blew an IC circuit and I went out and got a DLP and even though I found out that DLP can't have burn in I have found myself taking advantage of the zoom feature (not the stretch) on the set because it doesn't work like regular zoom.
As far as I've been able to tell over the years zoom on a cable box or tv zooms in cutting off the same amount of the image on the top of the screen as it does the bottom and fills in the screen accordingly. This ultimately led often to the top half of the actors' heads being cut off.
Mitsubishi got smart with their zoom feature on my set and realized that there's usually nothing worth missing at the bottom of the screen so they made the zoom cut off more of the bottom than the top to like a 2:1 ratio from what I can tell. Hence, actors heads are in one piece, the image fills the screen and it looks natural.
Very pleased.
A
Amaris
Guest
^ Toshiba does the same. Our living room TV uses zoom, because my family usually watches regular stations rather than movies. Of course one can switch back and forth just by setting it in the menu, but it's still nicer than how zoom used to be.
J.
J.
If it's shot in 4:3 I watch it in 4:3. The black bars bother me much less than the stretching or missing picture.
I'm just echoing here, but I'll watch in whatever ratio it's made in. After years of black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, black bars on the side go unnoticed.
The only thing that bugs me is on the rare occasion a widescreen film is cropped for 4:3. Then I watch on widescreen. It just feels... pointless.
The only thing that bugs me is on the rare occasion a widescreen film is cropped for 4:3. Then I watch on widescreen. It just feels... pointless.
4:3 the side bars don't bother me much. I only have a wide screen monitor though, can't see buying a new TV at this time when all of ours still work.
Sony does something similar to this too; they call it smart mode or something like that. That's the mode I use for 4:3 stuff. Mainly because I'm too lazy to change it through the menus.
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