What is with that fake widescreen crap on TV shows these days?

[Murphyrulez]

<< they are just wasting screen space, and therefore looks terrible >>



Do you feel like you are not getting your moneys worth out of your TV? Why does it HAVE to fill the screen? If they had a shot in ER of the two doctors operating on a guy, and they are at opposite ends of the screen, on either side of the body, to fill the screen they would either have to zoom out, giving alot of wasted headroom, or zoom in and pan over, cutting off one of the doctors. Why not just see the scene the way the director wanted you to see it?

Paul

 

[piku]

I love how half of you are replying without even looking at the show in question.

This is the explaination I figured (and is most likely correct), other than them being there just for looks:


<< The smaller black bars must be there because they're zooming in on the picture to fill more of the screen on non-HDTV broadcasts... (kinda of a half-ass Pan & Scam) >>



(edit: but now I don't get why they don't just show the real 16:9 version on normal TV instead of this pan & scan type deal... would look much nicer)

 

[Aves]

Widescreen is not always 16x9 but in the case of ER it is. The ER aspect ratio is 1.78:1 which is basically the same as a 16x9.
When you watch it on a 4:3 you are seeing the ENTIRE image, just letterboxed to make it fit your TV just like DVDs.
The reason the black bars are small is because 16x9 TVs are not that much wider than 4:3.