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

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 01:58:33PM -0400, Thomas Milne wrote:
> Okay, that makes sense. What I'm seeing, I guess, is people uploading
> shows that are supposed to be 16:9, but wherever this show is coming
> from they're broadcasting a 4:3 stream, therefore the black bars are
> part of the stream to compensate. The people doing this are probably
> completely unaware of what they're doing, because with their display
> it looks 'normal'.
> 
> Still, it causes havoc with real 16:9 displays because I end up with a
> 16:9 image, with black bars 'squashing' it so it's more like 2.33:1.
> Unwatchable, of course.

What you should be getting is black bars all around the picture.
It should not be squashed.  If it is squashed then your display or player
is doing the wrong thing, or the meta data on the file is wrong (and it
should then display wrong for everyone including the person that made it).

-- 
Len Sorensen
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