Let me tell you about my levels of frustration watching regular-def TV on an HDTV. The problem is not the definition, but the aspect ratio. That's the technical term for the fact that HDTVs (and movie screens) are wider relative to their height than conventional TVs. Here are the problems:
Level 1: they show a wide-angle movie on regular-def TVs, so they have to leave the top and bottom of the screen black. This is kind of annoying - and confuses some people - but what can they do. Later they start showing regular TV shows in the wide format, which is kind of pretentious since most people didn't have HDTVs yet.
Level 2: you buy a wide-screen TV, but decline to pay $10 a month extra for the HD digital converter box, so you're watching regular-shaped TV using only the middle of your screen, with the edges black.
Level 3: you watch one of the shows mentioned in level 1, where they have to fit a wide-format show into a regular broadcast. So it's got black across the top and bottom of the screen, and the sides of the screen. You're watching something the right shape but wrong size for the screen.
Level 4: Only once have I seen this actually happen: the network had apparently taken a wide-screen ad, made a small-screen recording of it with the black top and bottom of the screen, then broadcast that as part of a wide-screen broadcast (with blacked-out sides) but when that was shown on the regular-def broadast they had to black-out the more of the top and bottom, and I was watching on a wide TV with the sides blacked out. So with double blacked-out edges, the picture took up about the middle ninth of the screen. That's like watching Hollywood Squares and only being able to see Paul Lynde.
So I'm looking forward to the day when this is all over and all we have is wide-angle HD. And by then I'll have moved on to complaining that my 3-D TV keeps showing 2-D programs an inch from my nose.
Level 1: they show a wide-angle movie on regular-def TVs, so they have to leave the top and bottom of the screen black. This is kind of annoying - and confuses some people - but what can they do. Later they start showing regular TV shows in the wide format, which is kind of pretentious since most people didn't have HDTVs yet.
Level 2: you buy a wide-screen TV, but decline to pay $10 a month extra for the HD digital converter box, so you're watching regular-shaped TV using only the middle of your screen, with the edges black.
Level 3: you watch one of the shows mentioned in level 1, where they have to fit a wide-format show into a regular broadcast. So it's got black across the top and bottom of the screen, and the sides of the screen. You're watching something the right shape but wrong size for the screen.
Level 4: Only once have I seen this actually happen: the network had apparently taken a wide-screen ad, made a small-screen recording of it with the black top and bottom of the screen, then broadcast that as part of a wide-screen broadcast (with blacked-out sides) but when that was shown on the regular-def broadast they had to black-out the more of the top and bottom, and I was watching on a wide TV with the sides blacked out. So with double blacked-out edges, the picture took up about the middle ninth of the screen. That's like watching Hollywood Squares and only being able to see Paul Lynde.
So I'm looking forward to the day when this is all over and all we have is wide-angle HD. And by then I'll have moved on to complaining that my 3-D TV keeps showing 2-D programs an inch from my nose.
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