[mythtv-users] OT: Aspect ratio broadcast rant

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

    > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2016 16:13:40 -0500
    > From: Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org>

    > And I'd rather see anamophic widescreen.

    > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_widescreen

Me, too.  My Sony Wega (SDTV) will actually do this from DVD sources.
And the PVR-350 decoder also has an option to pass this through,
unlike every other decoder I'm aware of, which are mostly optimized
for progressive scan at higher resolutions.  But nobody ever sets the
bit except some DVD's.  Certainly not broadcasters.

    > Letterboxing on SD is just awful.  SD is is low enough resolution that
    > you really don't want to go any lower.

It depends on what you're watching, and whether you care about
resolution, or about things you can't see -at all- because they've
fallen off the sides.  Again, for talk shows, I care not one whit
about a 10% resolution change.  I care a lot about losing 10% off
each side of the picture when 4:3 safety is no longer something
anyone cares about.