The Today Show supports pan and scan.... (1 Viewer)

[Brett Cameron]

Yesterday The Today Show had a segment on dvd players and they had some tech editor explaining about dvd players. Then the host complained about those "black bars" and he told her she could make them go away by selecting the pan and scan option in the setup area(which is not true, so far their has been no pan and scan on the fly discs).Then the guy said the only way to appreciate widescreen was with a wide tv since their are no "annoying black bars". This guy really had no clue what he was talking about.

 

[Ernest Aguayo]

Hey there Brett. Yeah, they had a similar segment this morning as well. I think the correspondent's name was Corey Greenberg from beststuff.com ?
I guess he was trying to go in the right direction today when he explained that regular TV's are more "square" than the shape that movie theaters' screens are, so DVD movies have black bars b/c most directors want to preserve the way the movie was originally shown in the theater.
Too bad he fumbled when he said you could turn off the black bars if you don't "like" them. I guess he was alluding to the idea of discs that have both formats on the same disc, which are less and less common these days.
Why couldn't he just say "Trust me, leave the black bars alone!"

 

[Butch C]

Katie Kouric better not show her face in public...HTF'ers are ON THE WARPATH!!!

But seriously...was it the long haired guy who gives out gadget advice? He usually isnt bad...not that I watch or anything.

 

[Ernest Aguayo]

Butch, I don't usually watch the show, but this was a young guy with short hair.... Corey Greenberg ?

 

[Carlo_M]

Is it the same Corey Greenberg who used to write for one of the mags like Sound and Vision?
Oh man, Katie better take that multi-million dollar contract and use it to get some education on OAR! I'll gladly teach her, especially if she'd share the wealth!

 

[Jack Briggs]

Corey Greenberg also was the final editor of Audio magazine. He rose through the A/V journalism ranks under the auspices of Harry Pearson's The Absolute Sound. And he obviously knows better than that.

 

[Michael Caicedo]

I saw the segment and did not think it was pan & scan positive. Seemed to me he tried to explain (somewhat clumsily) how to use the zoom option on the dvd player to fill up the screen( almost saying "stop complaining about the black bars and use your zoom" ). He did mention widescreen movies retained the original aspect ratio, and that you lose part of the picture by zooming, although he downplayed how much you actually lose by doing this. And, I was encouraged when he ended his segment by saying that widescreen and hdtv IS the future of tv. I startled my wife at this point when I exclaimed "Yeah, take that Joe Six Pack".

 

[Darren Davis]

I didn't catch the whole segment but I did see enough of the end of it to be worried. I believe it was Anne Currie (sp?) who said, (paraphrasing) "Now what's with these black bars? Not groovy." and then the tech guy replied, "Yes, definitely not groovy." and then proceeded to talk about switching to Pan and Scan mode. But then, he was showing off the Avia discs to help calibrate your HT (This is when I got confused because I don't usually find people annoyed with the black bars as being the HT A/V perfectionists). Well, that was about it except for Matt Louer making a fool of himself because he didn't know what a subwoofer was and thought the name was hilarious.
P.s. I also thought to myself, "This guy gets paid for going on this TV show and talking about DVD like this?" I'm no expert but I think I could get a pretty nice job.

 

[Brett Cameron]

I could do a better job then that guy explaining dvd players, but he is the one being paid for it and on national television. I remember last year Howard Stern was complaining about the black bars because the Sorpranos was in widescreen. You think he could afford an HDTV with his salary to watch The Sorpranos in High-Def.

 

[Jay E]

I'm glad to see that it wasn't Katie Couric who complained about the black bars. I'm still trying to get over her statement to Matt Lauer in which she said; "Ooooh maybe he can give us some tips so we can get rich" when they announced that a money/stock specilist would be on the show.
Earth to miss Couric: "you may not know this but YOU'RE ALREADY RICH".

 

[Jack Briggs]

That so many people cannot seem to grasp the basics is baffling. Do the uninformed believe those black bars are there simply to annoy us? Doesn't anyone ever bother to think about it?

 

[Mike__D]

I dated someone who complained about the black bars when watching Gladiator, so I thought I'd educate her... First I tried verbally... no dice. Next, I grabbed a peice of paper, and a pen, and made a square box and labeled it TV, then drew a rectangle and labled it "Movie Screen". Then I asked her, how would you fit the movie screen into the tv screen? After a long pause, I commented that you wouldn't want to "squish" it in there... still a long pause. Sooooo, I said, you'd "shrink it". After a long "Ohhhhhh, I get it now!", and a sigh of relief from me, she added, "but I still don't understand why they have to cut the top and bottom of the picture off with those black bars... :frowning:
Thank God my current girl has a head on her shoulders...

 

[Jesse Skeen]

How do I get rid of that annoying thing with the waving flag and Olympic symbol when watching NBC?

 

[Jack Briggs]

Oh, Jesse, please--my blood pressure. Don't get me started on that one.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Also, everyone please note what Mike posted. He carefully explained letterboxing to his girlfriend, using diagrams no less. She experiences an "I-get-it!" epiphany--but still doesn't understand what the black bars are for.

I've experience the very same thing.

So, The Today Show cast listens to none other than Corey Greenberg, and they don't get it.

Somehow, though, widescreen is going to survive. I still believe that, no matter how uninformed most people are.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Oh man, Katie better take that multi-million dollar contract and use it to get some education on OAR!

I'd settle for her just getting an education period.

 

[Jan Strnad]

One shouldn't overestimate any TV personality. Katie Couric is still Jane Boxwine and Matt Lauer is still Joe Six Pack regardless of their salaries.
I blame the technogeek who did a poor job in educating them when he had the chance. He knows better. He wasted his five minutes of air time.
J.

 

[Mark Lee]

Corey Greenberg also was the final editor of Audio magazine. He rose through the A/V journalism ranks under the auspices of Harry Pearson's The Absolute Sound. And he obviously knows better than that.

And I seem to remember him as a staff writer at Stereophile magazine as well!! Boy, he sure does get around! Now why couldn't the Today Show have gotten someone from The Perfect Vision or something like that -- someone who actually makes his living looking at the video part of the "audio/video" system?

 

[Dave Barth]

I saw this segment, and I thought it was mortifyingly embarassing (for the Today show). Then again, I don't watch the show more than once a year - I caught it this year because I was at a hotel and got up early - and so perhaps the show is usually this inaccurate.

 

[Patrick Mirza]

Cripes, you'd think explaining OAR to someone was trying to teach molecular biology in one sentence!

Why the **** don't people understand this concept as easily as we do?!?!

Would people "get it" if I rolled out a large black screen with a square hole cut in its center and covered the movie screen next time I was at the movie theater???