Aug 27 2008
Disgust Of Letterboxing
I know I am not alone in this endeavor, but I am really fed up with letterboxing. Letterboxing is when there are black borders either top and bottom, or left and right around the television. Sometimes there are even borders around the whole screen. This is due to widely diverse aspect ratios being filmed today. This effect started appearing widely when DVD’s were released. Many movies would be letterboxed, that shows a smaller picture, but has a wider angle. This is how the director wanted the viewers to see the film. You see more action with the widescreen look, but sacrifice a smaller picture.
Now I know there are many people out there that this doesn’t bother. I am not one of them. I could care less I miss a little less filming on the sides. I want my TV to display a full image on the screen. Newer digital panels have a zoom or stretch feature, which attempts to fill the screen. They accomplish that but at a price. Either the top and bottom is cut off, or the picture aspect ratio is off, that will make the characters in the movie either short and fat, or tall and skinny.
I just hope down the line we get a set standard that will fill all the current widescreen TV’s at the correct aspect ratio which is 16:9. I doubt it will happen but you never know.
