[OT] Why do so few people understand aspect ratios?

[Thomas Milne]

On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 3:14 AM, Eric Battersby <gyre-Ja3L+HSX0kI at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 26 May 2010, Thomas Milne wrote:
>
>> I don't know if anyone on here does any video encoding, but can anyone
>> tell me why it is that so many people insist on adding the black bars
>> to their videos? It's amazing how many people I run into who cannot
>> seem to grasp the difference between 4:3, 16:9 and panoramic. They
>> think if a movie is widescreen, ie. 16:9, they need to add the black
>> bars to 'pad' the video...why?
>>
>> Are their TV's wrong? Their computer displays? I've had all kinds of
>> TV's, old CRT and flat screen, I've never, ever, needed to mess with
>> video to make it display properly. Ever.
>
>
> I can think of two reasons.
> (1) Someone wants to merge two videos together, where each
>    video is in a different aspect ratio.

That I could understand, but the situations I'm running into are
single episodes.

> (2) The encoding is being made for the lowest common
>    denominator 4:3 output display.
>
>    Some simple 4:3 output displays do not understand
>    aspect ratios.  They will always display fullscreen by:
>    (a) zooming the image until the vertical is maximized and
>        thus cropping the sides.
>    (b) stretching the image horizontally and vertically until
>        there are no bars.
>

Who sells such garbage? Wow, well, that at least explains their
motivation. Unfortunately, they don't seem to understand that no one
appreciates their 'efforts'.

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