Hi Laura,
on 20/1/10 10:18 AM, Laura Webb at el...@iinet.net.au wrote: > Hi Ronni > > <snip> > 2. When played on the TV/DVD player, part of the text under the photos on the > slides is not visible on the extreme LH side. This could just be because my TV > is old and not a flat screen. Before I try and correct this I'll ask a friend > with a more modern TV to try it out for me. > > <snip> The issue of what is visible on the TV gets quite involved and is due to the different aspect ratios (which refers to the ratio of the horizontal to vertical measurements of a television's picture) between different broadcast formats and different screens. Background - courtesy of Wikepedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_of_television>: * Most of the early electronic TV systems, from the mid-1930s onward, shared the same aspect ratio of 4:3 which was chosen to match the Academy Ratio used in cinema films at the time. * In the early 1950s, movie studios moved towards widescreen aspect ratios such as CinemaScope in an effort to distance their product from television. Although this was initially just a gimmick, widescreen is still the format of choice today and 4:3 aspect ratio movies are rare. * The switch to digital television systems has been used as an opportunity to change the standard television picture format from the old ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1) to an aspect ratio of 16:9 (approximately 1.78:1). This enables TV to get closer to the aspect ratio of modern widescreen movies, which range from 1.66:1 through 1.85:1 to 2.35:1. > Aspect ratio incompatibility > The television industry's changing of aspect ratios is not without > difficulties, and can present a considerable problem. > > Displaying a widescreen aspect (rectangular) image on a conventional aspect > (square or 4:3) display can be shown: > * in "letterbox" format, with black horizontal bars at the top and bottom > * with part of the image being cropped, usually the extreme left and right of > the image being cut off (or in "pan and scan", parts selected by an operator > or a viewer) > * with the image horizontally compressed > A conventional aspect (square or 4:3) image on a widescreen aspect > (rectangular with longer horizon) display can be shown: > * in "pillar box" format, with black vertical bars to the left and right > * with upper and lower portions of the image cut off (or in "tilt and scan", > parts selected by an operator) > * with the image vertically compressed > A common compromise is to shoot or create material at an aspect ratio of 14:9, > and to lose some image at each side for 4:3 presentation, and some image at > top and bottom for 16:9 presentation. To get around these problems most modern flat panel TVs offer you a choice of viewing mode to select how the TV displays different source material (my TV offers around 6 different modes, so I can choose, for example, whether to have the full image with black bars or the full screen but cropped image. Most DVD players will also allow you to set the video output to match the aspect ratio of the TV which is connected ie 4:3 for a conventional TV or 16:9 for a modern digital TV. Since you are viewing on an old CRT TV, you do not have the option of selecting a different display option on the TV however you will still probably have the option of changing the output of the DVD player between 4:3 and 16:9 (probably under a set-up menu under something like ³video output²). Without knowing what format your video is in and what settings you already have, it is hard to know if this will help (or make it worse!) but you should be able to easily try it and see. HTH Cheers Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: n...@possumology.com -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>
