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  #16  
Old 07-13-2014, 01:27 AM
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Yay Chris. 16x9 letterbox is put out there to show the original intent of the director using a wide screen and most channels now honor that. And I speak as a tv director. Just watch Laurence of Arabia in 4x3 to see how the wide-screen vision of a director is squashed.

If you have to have the CRT filling version in 4x3, the best bet...and cheapest, is to find a VHS/LD copy of the film from the 80's in 4x3. Also known as "center-cut" or "pan-and-scan". Besides, this version gets you in to another form of tv history preservation.
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Last edited by Dave A; 07-13-2014 at 01:29 AM. Reason: text
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  #17  
Old 07-13-2014, 10:30 PM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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I hate letterbox!!!!

FULL SCREEN for me
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  #18  
Old 07-13-2014, 10:50 PM
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I don't "hate" letterbox, but I don't like it, either. Fortunately, my flat screen TV has the zoom feature that allows me to fill out the screen when watching channels, such as USA network, that carry much of their programming in letterbox format. I don't have this problem with the local network stations, whose digital feeds always fill my screen. With my Blu-ray player, there is a menu option to switch between 4:3 and 16:9. I set it for 16:9 and it works perfectly with most DVDs--my own and those I rent from Netflix.
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  #19  
Old 07-31-2014, 07:29 PM
centralradio centralradio is offline
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I have nothing against letterboxing but I hate it when You Tubers stretch the daylights out of a classic TV shows do it.I watched some of I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners that were stretched to kingdom come.

Its great for movies of any era.

Some computer video editing software can crop out the letterbox and fix the video back to normal.

I know my DVD player has options that can have letterbox or 4.3 to be selected.And the same for the cable box and the DTV converter as I can remember.
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  #20  
Old 02-06-2015, 05:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut View Post
This is a special effects unit, and the functions on the lower right are for different kinds of wipes between two sources. Does not do resizing.

By the way, I don't understand why you are still having trouble. What exactly is the source of video you are using? A cable box? satellite box? Off-air digital to analog converter box? Any of these should have a zoom/aspect/crop setting that enlarges the image and crops off the left and right edges of a 16x9 program to give you full-screen 4x3 NTSC out.
I still have this problem with an RCA DTV converter box. Apparently the mfgr. assumes that anyone buying this device will be using it to feed a 4X3 TV set,
BECAUSE there are only two display selections, FULLSCREEN and WIDESCREEN, and they both produce black bars on any 16:9 set I've connected it to. Works fine on a 4X3 set however. Remember, never assume...
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  #21  
Old 02-06-2015, 05:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut View Post
This is a special effects unit, and the functions on the lower right are for different kinds of wipes between two sources. Does not do resizing.

By the way, I don't understand why you are still having trouble. What exactly is the source of video you are using? A cable box? satellite box? Off-air digital to analog converter box? Any of these should have a zoom/aspect/crop setting that enlarges the image and crops off the left and right edges of a 16x9 program to give you full-screen 4x3 NTSC out.
I still have this problem with an RCA DTV converter box. Apparently the mfgr. assumes that anyone buying this device will be using it to feed a 4X3 TV set,
BECAUSE there are only two display selections, FULLSCREEN and WIDESCREEN, and they both produce black bars on any 16:9 set I've connected it to. Works fine on a 4X3 set however. Remember, never assume...
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  #22  
Old 02-06-2015, 05:19 PM
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4X3 content on a 16X9 screen produces black bars at the sides, and is called 'Pillarbox'.
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  #23  
Old 02-06-2015, 07:40 PM
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[QUOTE=cbenham;3125781]I still have this problem with an RCA DTV converter box. Apparently the mfgr. assumes that anyone buying this device will be using it to feed a 4X3 TV set/QUOTE]
If it is one of the inexpensive "coupon-eligible"-type tuners with only RF and RCA-composite outputs, this is not surprising. 16:9 standard-definition sets were seldom if ever sold in the USA, and those set-top tuners were made to be very basic devices for common TV sets.

The cure is to find a set-top ATSC tuner that has HD outputs, even if you do not use them. Tuners like that (such as the Hughes HTL-HD) will often have a menu setting for 16:9, or will put out a widescreen signal on the composite output if the component or DVI/HDMI/RGB output is set to 720p or 1080i mode.
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  #24  
Old 02-12-2015, 12:21 AM
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etype2 etype2 is offline
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I just don't see a problem. I definitely want letterbox so I can see the entire movie as the Director intended me to see it, to cite Dave's example of Lawrance of Arabia. The only way one could view Lawarance of Arabia without letterbox is if one purchased a 21x9 aspect ratio monitor/TV.

On "old" 4x3 TV's, ME TV will look okay, but today's 16x9 telecasts will be cut off (missing part of the image) unless one sets the TV to letterbox.

I do understand the undersiable look of watching letterbox on a 4x3 set and the possible burn in on CRT sets. Just reset the aspect ratio on the converter box, but understand you won't see the entire image.

Before the DVD and BluRay was invented, the state of the art was LaserDisk championed by Pioneer. That format gave us the best image and sound with rock steady freeze frame. We demanded letterbox on our LaserDisks because of the expense of the disks and we began watching on projection television. The movie studios complied, there was a big demand for letterbox LaserDisks.
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Last edited by etype2; 02-12-2015 at 12:36 AM. Reason: Typo
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  #25  
Old 02-12-2015, 12:39 PM
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I understand and like letterbox on programs and movies that were meant to have it, but what ticks me off is when a 4X3 program is pillar boxed at the network (I know this because the pillar box is filled with the network art) then sent to the cable co as 16X9 by the network, and then that image gets pillar boxed to give me a 4X3 content with a big rectangle around it effectively decreasing my screen size.

I can't do a damn thing about it since it is analog cable (short of breaking in to buildings, or writing complaints).

Also some DTV stations send signals to block aspect ratio changes at the converter box.
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  #26  
Old 02-12-2015, 02:40 PM
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Watching Lawrence of Arabia on a 21" Sony Trinitron was my first experience with letterbox. That movie is a great example of why in my opinion watching a movie on any sort of TV is nothing but a giant compromise... movies are simply not made to be watched on a tiny screen across the room. You miss details left right and centre, and the sound is totally inadequate too.

I have A 120" wall mounted 16x9 screen with a 3 CRT Runco HDTV projector mounted on the ceiling, and the amount of detail I notice in movies has increased exponentially over watching movies on TV sets. It has been a bit of a bitch to keep it alive, the convergence ICs have failed twice, but since installing an additional fan they seem to be hanging in there.
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