Comments on Thanks for the Use of the Hall - Archive: The Jupiter Effect

Jean-Pierre - I don't know much about widescreen T...

2008-08-18T22:47:00.000-04:00

Jean-Pierre - I don't know much about widescreen TVs, myself. Do you feel pretty confident that the problem is a design issue, and not configuration or something else? Is Sony tech support available?

Dan, I am a bit late commenting and won't expatiat...

2008-08-17T17:32:00.000-04:00

Dan, I am a bit late commenting and won't expatiate on the weird phenomenon of the general public's apparent preference for grotesquely elongated and distorted images, since many fine points have already be made. I have, however, my own personal pet peeve about 16:9 screens and I would assume most film buffs would share it so that I am rather surprised that I haven't seen it mentioned here or

Well, there are some pretty big TV screens out the...

2008-07-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

Well, there are some pretty big TV screens out there these days. Maybe people are distracted by the visual space around the TV, and are slowly eliminating it.

It mystifies me that so many people claim to be "d...

2008-07-23T15:16:00.000-04:00

It mystifies me that so many people claim to be "distracted" by black bars on their TV screens, but don't seem similarly distracted by all the visual space surrounding their TV. All that "wasted" space!

Personally, I only feel comfortable watching 2.35:1 images that have been pan-and-scanned to fit a 16:9 monitor and had digital noise reduction performed on them by George Lucas himself.

Chris - I wasn't bothered at all by the letterboxi...

2008-07-07T14:17:00.000-04:00

Chris - I wasn't bothered at all by the letterboxing. I'm surprised, though, that experts would say that there was no distortion at that June 29 screening of Love on Sunday 2 - it's not the sort of problem that one can conjure up out of imagination. The first Love on Sunday film that same day looked fine.

It occurs to me that it's difficult to provide proof of the Jupiter

Dan,Let me assure you that the letterboxing was th...

2008-07-07T13:03:00.000-04:00

Dan,

Let me assure you that the letterboxing was the only method of presentation available to us. The tapes came with the English subtitles burned BELOW the image, so if any non-Japanese speakers wanted to understand the dialogue, the films (unfortunately) had to be presented in this manner.

As for the aspect ratio, the screenings I attended for LOVE ON SUNDAY and LOVE ON SUNDAY

Well if you put it that way then I hope you're rig...

2008-07-06T00:50:00.000-04:00

Well if you put it that way then I hope you're right. So yes them democratization which is a process and a progressive one and so the processing of the "cinematic" image is a demoratic one in turn. However as the processing as expressed and noted as is in the discussion is one of "distortion" and an effect of the conditions then of the process of democratization not limited or in other words not

Hmmm...Blogger seems to have lost a response I mad...

2008-07-05T20:39:00.000-04:00

Hmmm...Blogger seems to have lost a response I made earlier to Miguel and Harmanjit. I'll try to find a copy when I get home.

Michael and Frank: I can't help but wonder if what we're seeing is the democratization of the image! Maybe working stiffs everywhere are seizing control of the means of image production, thanks to video and cheaper home technology, and are sending a message to

The sensibilty of the cultivated (everyday life wi...

2008-07-05T11:42:00.000-04:00

The sensibilty of the cultivated (everyday life with dignity and common sense of preceeding generations especially, etc.)is been overwhelmed by the conditional posture of the consumer.
Simply put what was a customer, an audience, etc is now been replaced with quite dire results and affects by the cosumer. A creature of habit and expectations where a sense of "value" has been substituted

I think it's just like people resisted letterboxin...

2008-07-04T13:44:00.000-04:00

I think it's just like people resisted letterboxing on TV for ages, preferring pan-and-scanned, ruined movies. They would say they found black bars at the top and bottom "distracting" -- though why should they be more distracting than the LED on the DVD player? There does seem to be a desire to fill the screen at all costs, but I think it's because people are uneducated about the other valies

Dan, someday we'll all just have to retire to our ...

2008-07-03T19:59:00.000-04:00

Dan, someday we'll all just have to retire to our homes. People are being systematically desensitized, and this is not unintentional. Sadly, people are going for it.

What's particularly irksome about this trend, from the p.o.v. of a part-time academic, is that celluloid (esp. 16mm) is being phased out because it is so "unreliable." It breaks, it goes out of focus, whereas supposedly the

Danny - the Love on Sunday movies were shot on vid...

2008-07-03T07:56:00.000-04:00

Danny - the Love on Sunday movies were shot on video, so 1.66:1 seems unlikely - my impression is that 16:9 (1.78:1) is a standard video ratio. Video projectors can stretch or shrink the image incrementally, so any distortion is possible. And, if the tape was in fact letterboxed (which looked like the case, and which one of the managers said), that can also produce different ratios, if

Dan,Thanks so much for complaining twice, that's m...

2008-07-02T11:05:00.000-04:00

Dan,

Thanks so much for complaining twice, that's more than I had the guts to do! For this screening, it seemed to be very slightly off. I don't know anything of the technicalities of aspect rations, but I feel like it must have been a 1.66 image blown to 1.78 or something---the distortion was there but very minor.

I think those are good explanations. The "we want ...

2008-07-01T10:27:00.000-04:00

I think those are good explanations. The "we want to watch cinema" one accounts for the people who claim to want CITIZEN KANE in widescreen.

You often see the stretching effect on TVs in bars, which are tuned to one setting no matter what the channel or programming is at the moment. Even a restaurant-bar in this town called "Icon" with a classic-movies theme does this.

A related

Some reasons come to mind:- People think the 4:3 a...

2008-07-01T03:27:00.000-04:00

Some reasons come to mind:

- People think the 4:3 aspect ratio is old and TV-ish and they want to watch cinema, which to them means 16:9 or better.

- They have gotten used to 16:9 because the eyes have to move less vertically and it is therefore more comfortable for a large projection area to have it wider than taller (our eyes are more horizontal than vertical), 16:9 ratio

Dan, I'm happy someone comments on this spreading,...

2008-07-01T02:48:00.000-04:00

Dan, I'm happy someone comments on this spreading, ever-increasing fear of void (or waste?) that makes a lot of people (I really cannot understand why, I feel only comfortable when I'm sure I'm watching everything there is to see) prefer to see either flat, mutilated images or (now most TV-screen are 16:9) stretched and distorted (people are fatter, cars longer but seem crushed). There seems to