Philips to promote widescreen over 4:3 TV (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Hintz]

In clicking the link to win a Philips DVD recorder on this site, I noticed a "digital widescreen - see what you've been missing" button on the Philips website. Clicking it brings you to a great website (Link Removed) on the virtues of widescreen, and of course Philips widescreen TVs. According to the site, Philips is teaming with Martin Scorsese to launch a "'see what you've been missing' global educational campaign designed to provide the public at large with a clearer understanding of widescreen formatted television (16:9), and to promote the viewing of widescreen versus the standard 4:3 format television set." With the calls on this board to start educating the consumers, it looks like the CE companies may be out best friends in this fight.
--Andrew

 

[Patrick McCart]

I love the tagline:

"Television Formatted To Fit Your Movie"

Phillips is great for doing this.

 

[Wes C]

 

[Joe Fisher]

Awesome

 

[Clint B]

Great news! Let's just hope they stick to it and that others follow suit.

 

[John J Nelson]

It does stress several times that 16:9 TV means no more black bars. We all know that's not the case, with easily 50% of films being shot in 2.35:1...

-- J.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

If they say "no more black bars", that could become a problem.

As long as movies have different OARs and TV sets have fixed ARs (4:3 OR 16:9), there is obviously going to be EITHER black bars OR some sort of distortion to the picture some times. That is after all the important message.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Where's my credit card - does Philips make good widescreen sets?

 

[Tony_Faville]

 

[Lance Rumbolt]

Hi Philip in the UK Philips is one of the top sellers of widescreen TV's and yes they are very good indeed.

Widescree TV's in the UK I believe outsell 4:3 sets. I would apreciate if someone could confirm this.

Lance UK

 

[Marc Alexander]

Viewing letterboxed movies on a widescreen set may not eliminate the black bars entirely, but does reduce them while providing a larger, clearer picture in its entirety.

Great Site!

 

[Richard Travale]

This is great news. I hope that other manufacturers will get in line and start promoting this as "The Way it should be".

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah, they should be careful about the "no black bars" assertion.
Otherwise,
Now to make a Philips purchase...

 

[Jay Villero]

I was just at cnnsi.com and a Philips pop-up ad came up promoting widescreen! It let you sample the look of "standard" vs "widescreen" for three sports: golf, football, and basketball. I have screen shots of the basketball one, but no website to post them on.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

It does stress several times that 16:9 TV means no more black bars. We all know that's not the case, with easily 50% of films being shot in 2.35:1...

They do mention the truth about black bars in the footnote at the bottom of this page:
Link Removed

 

[NeilEdwards]

If you look at regular TV or old movies, you ARE going to get black bars. But at the side.

 

[Matt Wallace]

I hate to be the party pooper, but this "campaign" Phillips is talking about has been around for at least 2 years. When they first launched the site, they were also giving away a free copy of the book "DTV for Dummies" for about 6 months, then yanked the offer. I know of no one who actually got the book. I, too, was just as excited to read about this when I did, but the more I checked around about it , and the more often I checked back, the more I realized that it's mostly lip service and marketing. However, I'd love to be proved wrong and have them do a 180 and get something going ....

Matt

 

[Francois Caron]

Oh, crap! Their direct view widescreen TVs don't seem to be available in Canada! And there's a 30" model that might have suited my needs perfectly! Bummer!

 

[Cees Alons]

There are a significant amount of widescreen movies available on DVD that display in letterbox only, especially earlier movies filmed in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Viewing letterboxed movies on a widescreen set may not eliminate the black bars entirely, but does reduce them while providing a larger, clearer picture in its entirety.

They're not saying "no black bars". I think they're giving a proper picture (p.i).

Cees