Some people are stuck with a distorted picture on their TV. The worst part about it is that they are choosing to do it to themselves. For the true TV fanatic such as myself it can almost literally cause pain to see this happen.
This particular variety of Stretch-O-Vision is not caused by bad signal or stupid decisions at the programming source. It is caused, on purpose, by the viewer. Every time they see an image with blackness on the left and right sides, they reach for the remote and press the format button until the image stretches and the sidebars go away. They do this instinctively and instantly. For example, if while watching a 16x9 HD program, a 4x3 commercial comes on, the image must be stretched to fill the screen (and it must be done quickly or else something "bad" will happen?), then they obliviously watch the rest of the program stretched and with the sides cut off. The worst of all is if something comes on from a 4x3 source, letterboxed. They'll happily watch everything zoomed and stretched from that point on.
Whenever I have encountered one of these situations, I have explained the concept of "Original Aspect Ratio" in as many ways as I can think of. If I show them the actual images, they even agree that the unstretched one looks better. But still the instinct takes over every time.
For some people the clarity and quality of the image they are seeing is important. For others, it is more important that every pixel on the screen be in use, even though that "use" is to produce a blurry, distorted picture.
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1 hour ago
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Here's the problem:
Joe Schmo has an SDTV CRT hooked up to a satellite receiver. Everything he watches is either cropped to fill his screen by the broadcaster, or has small, hardly noticible bars at the top and bottom at worst. Either way, the vast majority of his screen is always filled with content.
Eventually, Joe's SDTV goes out from old age. Joe goes to a major electronic chain's store for a new TV. Joe sees giant LCD and plasma TVs, all showing a crystal-clear picture filling the screen. Joe awes at the quality compared to what he is used to at home, and picks up an HDTV. He talks to a sales person at this store, who convinces him to get HDTV service from his satellite company, which he does as soon as he gets home. The TV is set to be delivered and set up for him in a few days.
Before the TV is delievered, Joe's HDTV service is running through his satellite receiver, even though he cannot watch it. Somebody from the electronics store sets up his TV. He tunes to a channel on his satellite receiver, and the channel happens to be showing an SD program in OAR. Because Joe is not used to seeing large bars on his TV, he is unhappy that the full potential of it is not being used. He wants the entire screen to show his picture, or he feels that his TV is not being used properly.
Joe asks, "Why are those big black bars on my TV?"
The installer replies, "Oh, I can fix that for you." And the installer, naturally, pushes the "Zoom" button on the remote, setting the TV to stretch-O mode.
Joe is happy. He has a big HDTV and has a full-screen picture. Quality doesn't matter because it's HD anyway so it has to be great.
It drives me nuts to watch content when it isn't in the correct aspect ratio. I can't stand it when it's stretched.
The problem I usually see with family is that they they see a show they like on a standard def channel and stop, even if there is an HD channel available. I can't tell you how many times I've walked in, picked up the remote, and switched to the HD version. The reply is usually the same... "oh! That looks much better!".
-MG
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