[opendtv] Re: News: See the Big Picture? Don't Forget to Examine the Fine Print
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 12:02:20 -0400
At 8:43 AM +0100 5/4/04, Alan Roberts wrote:
>No Craig, 16:9 in the Digital channels in the UK, 14:9 on the analogue ones.
>If your going to tell people off at least get your facts right. 16:9 is the
>worldwide standard for digital television, look in the SMPTE and ITU
>documents and you'll not find any other shape.
>
Actually I wrote:
4:3 on the NTSC channels
16:9 on the DTV channels
14:9 on BBC channels in the UK.
I don't see any errors here, unless you want to pick nits about the
fact that the BBC offers both analog and digital services. It would
have been more correct to say BBC analog channels in the U.K.
The reality is that content producers must take all of these aspect
ratios into consideration today.
As for the SMPTE and ITU documents, they are indeed standards. But
there are many standards in the world of entertainment technology.
The film industry has hundreds of them. Just because one very
powerful special interest group WANTS the world to migrate from 4:3
to 16:9 does not make it reality.
The reality is that picture aspect ratios are "soft" in every imaging
industry EXCEPT for TV.
The reality is that I can create content in any aspect ratio today.
The reality is that I can use the same MPEG encoding tools to deliver
video source in any arbitrary aspect ratio today; this is the way the
standard was designed to work, and the reality is that Hollywood is
doing this today.
The reality is that many CD and DVD delivered multimedia titles
provide content in multiple aspect ratios, as appropriate for the
content.
Most important: the reality is that broadcasting is the tail wagging
the dog of digital television today. To assume that the world of
digital media that will exist in say 20 years will look like this
world is absurd.
Regards
Craig
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