grahamlthompson - 3 hours ago »
Faust - 1 hour ago »
grahamlthompson - 1 hour ago »
Faust - 1 minute ago »
fedman1 - 59 minutes ago »
It must be just me, but I fail to understand why so many people are prepared to watch programmes in the wrong aspect ratio. When we only had 4:3 TV's I don't remember lots moans about 'black bars' top and bottom, it was just accepted as 'widescreen'.
Rather than watch 'fat' 4:3, why not like cinema's fit curtains each side of the tv to obscure those terrible black bars, just a thought!
You don't pay for all the real estate of a large flat panel TV to see it go to waste with a tiny picture in the middle. It drives me to distraction. I prefer people like Bunter than have black bars at the side.
However, Netflix now thinks they know what I want, nay they are telling me what I can have. If they programme was originally broadcast in 4.3 e.g. Star Trek then 4.3 it is and it doesn't matter what aspect ratio I choose on my TV because as it's streamed you get what Netflix decide to broadcast. 
By expanding a 4:3 source to fit a 16:9 panel you are degrading the picture significantly, it's hard enough to get a decent picture from a SD channel without either stretching the pixels horizontally or simply throwing them away. Your TV aspect ratio settings should overide the transmitted pixel aspect ratio (which determines the correct aspect ratio the video information should be viewed in to avoid distorting the picture).
You wouldn't distort a photograph to fit on photo paper that is a different aspect to the original, why do it with video ?
Because I don't want black bars - simples. If I can sit and watch Youtube on a 47" screen then you will gather PQ doesn't really fuss me to much at all. Growing up with a 12" monochrome TV and a magnifier across the front tends to do that to you. 
I rarely record anything in HD as SD is more than good enough for us and you can fit far more on the HDD. P.S we are sat around 13 feet from the TV.
What do you do when a 2.35:1 movie is shown ? Frankly a bit amazing you paid for a big TV presumably with a 1920 x 1080 display and want to watch SD on it. Do you still use a VCR ? 
Youtube has some excellent quality FULL-HD and 4K content.
We have recently watched New Zealand Islands on the Edge I think it was called and just finished the Scottish ones tonight - similar sort of thing. All watched and recorded in SD. I thought the SD PQ was excellent. Switched over at one point to HD and the improvement appeared negligible, certainly from that viewing distance.
Besides, I wanted to keep these programmes so have copied them and now have them on my NAS. I couldn't have done in in HD.
We were watching some old 1970's classic's on Youtube the other day where the grass was just green smearing and the skin was pink blotches. However, the audio was good and you could still make out the action so for me that was good enough. I simply can't get excited about this sort of thing.
I think I spoiled a salespersons day in JL when he dragged me over to a 4K curved Samsung TV to show me this 'apparently stunning picture' and I just nodded and said the scenery was nice.
Regarding your quip about a VCR - no I don't use a VCR. However, I did transfer a lot of programmes from VCR to DVD which I still watch e.g. NYPD Blue.
| Fri 26 Aug 2016 21:55:59
#18 |
