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

[Thomas Milne]

On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 11:42 AM, David J Patrick <djp-tnsZcVQxgqO2dHQpreyxbg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 10-05-26 09:42 PM, Thomas Milne wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 8:50 PM, David Christopher Chipman
>> <dchipman-rYHPKw+MWrk at public.gmane.org>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Thomas Milne wrote:
>>> It's not the end user's fault, really. It has to do with the fact that
>>> the
>>> aspect ratios for some video content is not that same as broadcast TV,
>>> which
>>> "most" monitors are designed for. That's why the black bars are there.
>>> Other
>>> wise they have to pan-and-scan the source image, to look at "important"
>>> things. OK?
>>>
>>
>> No, because I'm not asking about video content that has non-standard
>> aspects. I'm asking about people who take video content that _is_ in a
>> standard 16:9 aspect, and pad it so that it is 4:3. There is _never_ a
>> good reason to do this, yet people persist.
>
> Ahhhh so wrong :)
> You may be correct that there is endless confusion regarding aspect ratios,
> but you assertion that there is NEVER a good reason to do this, puts you in
> the camp of the confused. If the original format differs from the display
> format, you have only a few choices; "letterbox" the image so that you see
> the whole picture (hence black bars) or the film can be subjected to "pan
> and scan" (where the image is shifted left and right to keep the important
> parts of the action visible, loose the non-overlapping image areas entirely,
> or go buy a monitor that matches the original aspect ratio (only available
> in 16:9, not 1:185 cinemascope or any of the myriad cinema formats)
>
> Letterboxing is a necessary evil, and you can blame the history of
> filmmaking and the lack of standardization.
> djp
>>

I am not confused at all.

What I meant was: if the original is in a _standard aspect_, there is
no _good_ reason to add the black bars, because any TV or display
built by a non-clueless person will display the picture properly, ie
the _display_ will show 'black bars' where there is _no image_.

I am talking about people deliberately adding black bars to the video
during encoding, not the fact that the display might show black where
there is no image. Of course that is normal, I'm not an f'n idiot.

I regularly display all standard formats on my LCD monitor and on my
plasma TV, and previously on my old CRT TV, and not one of them ever
required the addition of black bars.

I've been doing more reading on this, and here is the expert consensus:

If you need to add black bars, it's because the video is either in a
non-standard aspect, or your display is a cheap piece of crap.

-- 
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