Widescreen Television - Black Bars Are Your Friend

I know I shouldn't take it personally. I know I should just let it slide. After all, they don't know what they are doing. It's just a job. Right ? Who am I talking about ? TV sales people. OK, before they all get upset, I'm not talking about experts. Norlec, Encel. They know what they are on about.

I'm talking about the pimple-faced weekend sales people at the Megamarts and Retravisions. I walk into these places (usually out of a perverse curiosity - do they understand it yet ?) to be greeted by huge widescreen televisions with distorted images being shown uniformly across the wall. Heads stretched in some strange torture device. Strange ectomorphic people populate every movie and TV show being screened in these places. There is not a black bar in sight. Why ? Because the general population don't understand how widescreen works, and these simple-minded salespeople don't want to teach them.

It's simple, really. Television comes in two flavours. 4:3 (aspect ratio 1.33:1) is the standard, almost square tube we have been watching for years. 16:9 (AR 1.78:1) is the new kid on the block, called Widescreen. So what's the problem ? Movies. Damn it, movies are the problem. Movies come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Let's list a few movie aspect ratios for the folks, shall we :

1.33:1 How it was at the beginning
1.66:1 Kubrick liked this. Strangelove actually shifts between 1.33 and 1.66
1.78:1 Widescreen TV
1.85:1 Probably the most common format used today
2.20:1 Not uncommon. 2001 was shot on this format
2.35:1 The EPIC ratio. Still used a lot today. Think Lawrence of Arabia
2.40:1 Super epic widescreen

And there are a few inbetween these as well. Notice something about this list. Only two of them fit exactly the screen ratio of television. All the rest will have black bars top and bottom (or vertical black bars on a widescreen TV in the case of 1.33 and 1.66). This is A GOOD THING. Why ? Because that is how the director shot the film. They made a deliberate decision to use this particular aspect ratio to hold their vision. If you want to watch their movie (and hey, it is their movie, not yours), this is how it should be watched. Saying (as some do) that having black bars means you get less picture is about as intelligent as saying daylight savings fades your curtains because of all the extra sunlight. In fact, you are missing out. Depending on the original aspect ratio, you could be seeing only half the picture.

Don't believe me ? Still don't understand how it all works ?

Have a look at this aging, but still relevent web site. It is one man's crusade to get the american people to see the light. There is also a very nice, brief explaination on the Die Hard special edition DVD.

And next time you go into a Megamart store, ask the salesperson standing there why you would want to buy a TV that stretches all the images. I bet they don't get the joke.

Why digital television in Australia is a farce

Digital Television arrived late in Australia. The free-to-air commercial networks had lobbied as hard as they could to stop it, but it was inevitable. So they took the next step - they agreed to allow it to happen, but the government had to set certain limitations. These included

• No further networks to be licensed for 7 years
• Reduce the requirements for a signal to be called High Definition
• Any extra channels that were set up could only show News. No entertainment.
• Set standards that were unique in the world to ensure a delay in provision of equipment
  

They then embarked on a very backhanded advertising campaign that explained the virtues of digital television in terms of how much extra it would cost you to get a free product. They didn't actually mention prices, but explained that to get digital TV you would have to purchase a set top box (STB), and that digital TV would be widescreen, so you need a new television to really enjoy it.

So 4 years on, where are we ?

Well, prices of STBs have finally dropped to a reasonable level, especially if you only want Standard Definition (read : DVD quality picture, CD quality audio on your existing CRT television). All the major suburban areas have digital coverage, although you may need to factor in the cost of a new aerial anyway. If you want High Definition (HD) expect to pay $$$$$s for a new television that can accept the signal, and even them expect to get screwed over. Because of the very loose version of HD we have in this country, many Plasma and LCD televisions pass as HD because they have 720 or more vertical scanlines. 720p (progressive) is the minimum HD requirement in Australia, however many HD programs, especially blockbuster events, are broadcast in 1080i. Televisions that can show 1080i without compromise make up about 0.0001 percent of the televisions available on the market.

There are only two new digital only channels. Both are run by government funded stations. One shows only native laguage news services from around the world. The other show repeats of childrens programs and documentaries. We do not have any of the features promised years ago, such as multi-angle viewing of sports programs. The electronic programme guide, by which digital Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) are programmed, consists of the programme that is on now, and the programme that is on next. And these are rarely accurate, and sometimes do not get changed for hours. The commercial stations often buy the cheap version of overseas content, so we get 4:3 versions of product viewed elsewhere in glorious 16:9.

The real joke in all this. The idiots within the Australian government who put all this together are starting to look stupid. The take up of digital television is this country is well below the take up rate for DVD and plasma. This is dispite Australia's deserved reputation as an early adopter of new technologies (we have the fastest take up rate of mobile phones, one of the fasted of DVD, and one of the highest penetration rates for both). Their response to this is to begin a governmental enquiry into the poor take rate of digital television services in Australia in the hope of determining exactly what is wrong with the Australian people, and why aren't they availing themselves of this marvellous new technology. The reason is obvious : we voted for morons who were more interested in the good publicity they might get from the commercial stations if they bent over, than in the best interests of the Australian people.

Yes, I own a digital STB PVR. It is standard definition because there is no incentive to go High Def, certainly at the outrageous cost to do so (a subject of another post some day), and I am not a happy television watching constituent of this wide brown land.