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Could manufacturers off wide screen TVs please STOP the option of taking standard TV broadcasts and stretching it to wide screen. I am sick and tired of going to restaurants, bars, friends houses and watching a distorted picture. I'm to the point I would rather the TV be off than watch a movie/program with a distorted picture. It amazes me that most people don't even know it unless I point it out. And even then, they would rather the whole screen be filled with the distortion than seeing black space on their screen.
That said, I would rather the ONLY option be to increase the picture to fill the screen by cutting off the top and bottom of the picture. At least one does not have to view the distortion.
What say you?
Follow Ups:
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A TV in a restaurant?????
Prey tell what kind of slop-serving den of iniquity masquerading as a restaurant has a TV in it???
I only watch TV when and where I want to and have no bizarre urge to watch something that annoys me.
I’m guessing not looking at said offending TVs would be an overly simplistic solution to YOUR problem?
Smile
Sox
I don't know if it is a cultural thing or what, but most Vietnamese restaurants specializing in Pho that I have been in the SF Bay Area have TVs that are on, even some relatively fancy places (for Pho, that is). And these are restaurants, not bars and restaurants. At least I consider them restaurants. Fortunately most use captioning rather than have the sound on as well. I have not seen TVs in any other kind of Asian restaurant or typically in any other kind of restaurants.Joe
Edits: 04/23/11
Trust me, it works! I've used it in airport bars, doctor's waiting rooms, Best Buy (THAT was fun..watching an entire wall of TVs go on/off!)
Baba-Booey to you all!
that works for people?
I have a small cell-phone jammer that works for about a 10 ft radius. Good enough to stop people from blabbing away in my small pizza place while I'm trying to take their order. I refuse to wait on someone who isn't polite enough to put the phone down.
Baba-Booey to you all!
... I don’t really go anywhere where I find TV screens to be objectionable.
My primary comment was based on a TV in a restaurant. I have not seen that before.
Smile
Sox
Picture a bar full of sports-crazy guys; everyone locked onto one of several screens; and at just the right moment (say a penalty kick for you down under types)...ZAP! It's hilarious! I used it at Best Buy when a customer was TV shopping. As the salesman was explaining the models....ZAP! Most of the bank of screens goes out...then ZAP...back on again!
Baba-Booey to you all!
Not every place that serves food deserves that label.
Kal
... Any place that serves food AND has a TV in it is not a place I am likely to eat :o)
Smile
Sox
... masquerading as a restaurant has a TV in it???".
The one with a chef that smokes, or chews tobacco ; )
Smell the smoke, or people glued to the eye of hell (TV), walk away...
...It is bad enough having to smell a smoker sitting somewhere near me.
Smile
Sox
If you think restaurant kitchens are run like hospital operating rooms then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell to you for a bargain price!
Read Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential". In it he tells that even the most highly rated eateries have practices that are questionable.
For instance, your Sunday brunch is usually comprised of the week's leftovers. Tonight's special is yesterday's meat/fish/vegatables. And remember, don't order fish on Monday because it'll have a sauce to hide its age. Anthony tells us that kitchen staff bleed, too! When the evening is over, it's time to sweep out the dead pests and kill the injured.
Hey, I'm not trying to gross you out but getting on your high horse and pontificating about (gasp!) television sets is nuts! Besides, Bourdain's book is a great read and a best seller. Running a restaurant is like running a democracy: it can be a mess but there is true beauty in doing it.
... I know a little about the restaurant game ol’ son so you keep your bridge and the stupid book.
Most of the restaurants I frequent I know the chefs and/or owners. More often than not either the chef or owners will join us for a port or single malt with a nice cheese platter at the end of the evening.
I am neither on a high horse or pontificating when I talk about a restaurant having a TV set. The last eatery I went to that had a TV set was in 1980 when on a road trip around Australia.
I go to lots of restaurants and none of them have a TV set. Gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smile
Sox
I go to many restaurants without televisions but none that have a large bar without them. Too many sports fans. I'm surprised that's not the same in Australia which is stereotyped, accurately or not, as being people with sports fans and enthusiastic drinkers. :-)
I do know that the best restaurants you can find have kitchens that, at times, would make one wretch.
-Wendell
For clarity, I do not eat at establishments that have TV sets on the wall.
I occasionally might be at a bar or club that serves food that has a TV in it BUT I don’t eat there.
I never sit at a bar staring aimlessly at a TV set.
I have never been one to watch sports at a bar. I watch sports either at the venue or at home.
There are countless bars & clubs in Australia with multiple TV sets but they are not places I frequent.
I will repeat, I go to many restaurants but none of them have a TV set.
Smile
Sox
my sony bravia is not like that at all.I have it set for 16.9 there other settings too I think to keep it all wide. mine will do 4.3 & the remote can make it wider. It also has the wide stretch your talking about. really nice tv. it was only $300.00 its a 26" with comuter dvi and hdmi.& component. theres at least 5 different hook ups
dts-cds dvd-audio &mch sacds & blu-ray concerts & speaker amp sound system tweaks rule
That is generally a setup option on the TV or the cable box and the blame for a distorted display of this sort lies with the operator, not the manufacturers.
Kal
Don't give people the option.
One case - At a relative's house I pointed it out and they did not want the black space on the sides so they left it in stretch mode. I refuse to watch TV at their house. Also it is a PIA to change viewing modes with this TV as you have to go into the menu options. It should be as easy as touching a button on the remote. FYI - Vizio TV
Second case - I installed a wide screen TV mounting it to the wall (also installed cable and power behind the TV) at a friend's house. This TV gave NO option to view broadcasts as standard picture. It only offered stretch mode. FYI - another Vizio TV
As stated above, I have been to numerous restaurants and bars with the same issue. It is frustrating to watch a distorted picture and the owner of the TV either does not care or does not know any better.
Scott
PS I enjoy your writing in Stereophile!
Instead of the manufacturers, you need to take it up with the old school jackasses in the broadcasting industry. We moved into "the widescreen age" in 1950s. Yes, 19 F-ing 50s. That's when the movie industry decided to go with a wider aspect ratio for their presentations. So in order to fix your problem, it's really the broadcast people who need to get with it and distribute their transmissions in a widescreen aspect ratio (specifically 16x9, due to that assinine ratio being chosen for widescreen displays).
When they did the switch to HD it would have made sense to ALSO begin broadcasting at a 16X9 ratio. Where were the industry leaders to make this happen?
When the analog broadcast signals were turned off and the switch to digital began, they should have switched to the 16x9 aspect ration for broadcasts (call it a 2 for 1). My guess is that many of them still use 4x3 video cameras and were/are in no hurry to upgrade these $20k+ oldies to 16x9 models.
All of the displays in my house will allow 4x3 content to be displayed in the 4x3 aspect ratio (ie; no stretching, if that's what you want). That's 3 plasmas and 2 LCD displays, none of which are made by the same company.
Avoiding burn-in (plasma) and brown-in (LCD). A plasma display, even today's models, will get burn-in if the display is only used for 4x3 content. An LCD display, despite what most uninformed people believe, will get brown-in if the display is only used to display 4x3 content.
There are (close to) 4x3 LCD displays, but they are, relatively speaking, small and are best suited for use as a computer monitor. There was a company (can't remember the manufacturer) that made a 42" plasma display that had a 4x3 aspect ratio. That was years ago and I haven't seen it advertised since then.
I wish we could make a push for ALL broadcasts in the 16X9 format, but as they say, LOL. Any TV I purchase MUST be able to keep the 4X3 format to fill the screen by cropping the top and bottom, NOT streching it to fit the screen.
I don't even accept the top/bottom cropping. None of my more recent 16x9 TVs do that unless you choose it... I do have an old Sony that crops several rows of 4:3 pixels top/bottom, uncontrollably by me, just enough to annoy me with old movies lol; in those days it was less unacceptable on a WS display.
One thing though: if a few rows top/bottom aren't cropped, in some 4:3 digital TV broadcasts you can see some "junk" up/down there. I was told why, but forget... Many TVs (like my main one) have a slightly less optimal viewing mode that will cut them off and not do much other harm, good enough for a typical TV broadcast (after all, the best are 1080i 16x9 anyway).
There are extra lines in video that serve as a home for such things as: synchronization, vertical retrace, closed captioning data and some timecode material. Unless you are in the industry and make use out of it, a non-technical term for such things could probably be "non-picture crap".
:-)
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