Why is everything widescreen? The obvious answer is because its shot using widescreen cameras, but why even do that. I've been watching regular TV on a widescreen TV and its ugly the stretching of the images. There must be a reason that widescreen is becoming preferred. Also, I've been shopping for a LCD HD TV around 37" to 42" and I think the Sharp Aquos looks far and away the best. There are some brands like "Viewsonic" that look pretty good but I don't know anything about those brands. Is the Aquos the best LCD TV? Also whats the difference between the 2 speakers on the sides versus the 1 on the bottom?
Why is everything widescreen? Short answer, cause we are in the middle of the HighDefinition broadcast change over. Google it to find out all the details. If you are looking for an LCD panel in the 37-42 inch range, Sharp does make a beautiful unit. Also check out the Samsung and Sony models.
Movies have always been filmed in widescreen. That's just the way movies are made. It feels more cinematic, and is just the nature of movie-making. That's why if you play some games, even in 4:3, black bars appear at the top and bottom at important cinematic sequences. Just one small example I can think of. TV broadcasts have been behind. The substandard 4:3 is now getting outdated as HD is taking over. Widescreen is not preferred because people have to stretch 4:3 images to fit the 16:9. Nobody likes that and it does look ugly. But remember that as technology advances, it is only expected that all TV shows will eventually be broadcasted in HD 16:9. And by then, we will all be saying: "Why would anyone prefer 4:3? It looks ugly because you'd have to shrink the image to fit the screen." Oh, and Aquos sets are really nice. If you want to see what television shows look like in widescreen HD, then you can get an OTA antenna because many shows are already being broadcasted in widescreen over-the-air and you can catch the signal with the antenna. That's the only free method to watch widescreen HD.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me when someone complains about the black bars above & below the image on a widescreen presentation. They complain that it 'distracts' you from the movie. Um, hello? There are four black bars around the edge of the screen already, the FRAME of the TV. You manage to tune that out don't you? Not meaning this against the op, just an observation that no one seems to consider.
I don't think the AQUOS 37" will be around my price range ($2000) for a long while. I may have to settle for a Samsung 46" DLP. I don't care about the bulkiness and heaviness if the picture is good since I have a place to put it. Is there a better HDTV at $2000 or something that I should keep my eye on. I probably won't buy a HDTV until PS3 anyway.
I think most people don't like the black bars because they don't know what they represent. Black bars mean that you are seeing the entire movie frame! Since movies are shot wide they have to be either cropped or letter-boxed to fit a 4:3 screen. Cropping (with Pan-Scanning) gets rid of the black-bars but abviously destroys the movie experence, so most movie watchers don't mind a letter-box presentation, since it means that they are seeing the movie they paid to watch! As a side note, I will say that movies where first shot in 4:3 (1.33:1) ratio! Thats why the TV standard ratios resimble the 4:3 (NTSC) and 5:4 (PAL) box, the standards at the time. Movie makers where afraid that people would eventually stop going to the movies, since they could now view them in the comfort of there own home, so they decided to modify the experience in a way that would make it better than TV. As movie making evolved TV stayed the same. Now TV is trying to evolve but finding it hard to overcome over half a century of analog 4:3 viewing habits. Ced
Check these out: (widescreen) http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html (anamorphic widescreen) http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/page2.html
