18-04-2017, 10:19 AM
You can never get a perfect answer for displaying 16:9 material on a 4:3 screen. The available methods are:
Letterbox: Black bars top and bottom
Pillarbox: Not relevant here, it's for displaying 4:3 material on a 16:9 screen
Crop: Slice off the left and right sides, hoping that nothing important is lost
Compromise letterbox: A mixture of letterbox and crop. The commonest solution
Tall and skinny: Just display the 16:9 on a 4:3 screen. Yuk.
Dynamic expansion: Don't know if this is the correct term but it leaves the centre of the screen intact while squeezing the edges to fit. Possibly used in conjunction with a small amount of crop. Not often used but I think it looks revolting, especially during pans.
The purists will say letterbox is the only way, practical folk usually say compromise letterbox. And so do I.
All this is normally handled in the Freeview box etc so the 625>405 converter doesn't need to be involved.
Letterbox: Black bars top and bottom
Pillarbox: Not relevant here, it's for displaying 4:3 material on a 16:9 screen
Crop: Slice off the left and right sides, hoping that nothing important is lost
Compromise letterbox: A mixture of letterbox and crop. The commonest solution
Tall and skinny: Just display the 16:9 on a 4:3 screen. Yuk.
Dynamic expansion: Don't know if this is the correct term but it leaves the centre of the screen intact while squeezing the edges to fit. Possibly used in conjunction with a small amount of crop. Not often used but I think it looks revolting, especially during pans.
The purists will say letterbox is the only way, practical folk usually say compromise letterbox. And so do I.
All this is normally handled in the Freeview box etc so the 625>405 converter doesn't need to be involved.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv
