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02-02-2004, 09:39 PM
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#1 of 17 
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Mark
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Letterboxed Commercials on 16x9 tv rant
First off, I am pro-OAR and this has nothing to do with me hating black bars - it's more of a rant about practicality...
That being said...Do any 16x9 tv owners hate these letterboxed commercials as much as I do? I just don't see any point to it...why are they shooting 16x9 video that is going onto a 4x3 medium?
We're not talking about movies that take advantage of the wide format (up on the big screen). They're just being letterboxed, then shown on 4x3 tv's. And if you have a 16x9 tv, there is no advantage of this format either...unless you have your tv set to crop the top and bottom off and fill the screen with the image, but who does that!???
The worst is when you watch these letterboxed commercials on HDTV and you get black bars on all 4 sides!!!
I guess I can see if you are filming the commerical in 16x9, but if the commercial isn't ever presented anamorphically, why do it?? Why wouldn't an advertiser want to use the entire screen? Are they trying to be "Hip" and make their commercials look like DVD's??
Ok, Rant off - this is meant as a fun thread and not a bitch fest (by me) - I'm not really pissed off (I'm more perplexed), it's just been a pet-peeve of mine and thought I'd start a conversation to see if anyone else is bugged by it as well.
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02-02-2004, 09:58 PM
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#2 of 17
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Michael Reuben
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this is meant as a fun thread
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OK, in the spirit of fun:
The first goal of an advertiser is to get your attention. Looks like the letterboxing worked. 
M.
"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown
"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert
HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ
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02-02-2004, 10:19 PM
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#3 of 17
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I've seen them all.
In fact, since I have a 4:3 TV with true 16:9 squeezed HD mode, I see a letterboxed commercial inside of a 4:3 windowbox inside of a 16:9 HD squeezed window inside of a 4:3 passive rear-projection screen.
Doesn't bother me at all.
They are just commercials, after all.
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02-02-2004, 10:42 PM
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#4 of 17
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I once read an article that said one advertising exec asked another why they chose a letterbox image for their ad and they said it seemed classier. personally I think this is a good thing, if people in advertising see it then perhaps others will too.
It would be nice if they'd blow them up for the HDTV feeds. I was a little disappointed that the Super Bowl still had SD commercials. You'd think that at some point they'd start filming everything in HD. They should be able to format the commercial for HD better. But oh well, it's just a commercial.
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02-02-2004, 11:33 PM
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#5 of 17
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Mark
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The first goal of an advertiser is to get your attention. Looks like the letterboxing worked.
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True, but I couldn't tell you which products are featured in any of those commercials.
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they said it seemed classier.
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That's probably it. Although, if the advertisers are saying the ads look 'classier', then they are obviously looking at them on a 4x3 screen. If they ever saw them on a 16x9 tv, they wouldn't think they looked 'classy' at all. 
I guess I'm reading too much into this, but HDTV is SUCH a step forward that whenever I see a letterboxed image on an HD channel, it just seems like such a step backwards.
Just my paranoid 2 cents. |
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02-02-2004, 11:54 PM
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#6 of 17
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Michael Reuben
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True, but I couldn't tell you which products are featured in any of those commercials.
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Like I said, the first goal . . .
On a serious note: Letterboxing of commercials didn't start with DVD. It started with music videos and then spilled over into commercials. I'm sure that part of the initial impetus was to create a visual "difference" between the commercial and the regular 4:3 material, at a time when letterbox bars were a rare sight on TV. Today, it's just part of the visual mix.
M.
"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown
"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert
HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ
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02-03-2004, 08:20 AM
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#7 of 17
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I personally think that this is a good thing. The more the general public becomes accustomed to seeing black bars on their TVs, the more likely they are to accept them when watching their movies, which only forwards the OAR cause.
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02-03-2004, 09:07 AM
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#8 of 17
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personally think that this is a good thing. The more the general public becomes accustomed to seeing black bars on their TVs, the more likely they are to accept them when watching their movies, which only forwards the OAR cause.
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Or, when they see black bars on commercials (which have no practical purpose), it will support their paranoia that they're trying to take away their screen space and/or force them to buy expensive widescreen TVs.
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02-03-2004, 09:50 AM
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#9 of 17
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John Co
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I guess I can see if you are filming the commerical in 16x9, but if the commercial isn't ever presented anamorphically, why do it?? Why wouldn't an advertiser want to use the entire screen? Are they trying to be "Hip" and make their commercials look like DVD's??
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It bothers me to the extent of the fact that I think they are doing it just to be 'hip'. You're absolutely right, there is no need for them to do this. Especially when they are typically non-anamorphic and at least on 16x9 TV's this makes a tiny picture.
I have a better idea, just make the frickin' commercial a thumb-nail sized image, then we won't have to even see it.  |
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02-03-2004, 10:18 AM
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#10 of 17
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