Aspect ratio questions

I have a question:

1) Why are many old movies from the 30s-50s suited to 16:9 monitors/screens without any cropping of the screen or leterboxing, but old shows (think the original Twilight Zone or even later shows like Magnum, PI) are letterboxed?

2) How far into the forseeable future can you see 16:9 remaining the standard? And when aspect ratios go beyond 16:9, will that mean the letterbox that older shows are in will grow smaller and smaller until they're just barely visible tiny boxes within a huge screen? Will there come a time that the original Twilight Zone series or I Love Lucy won't be watchable due to aspect ratios?

 

My Twilight Zone Blu rays are 1:33, as they should be. Confused.

 

I'm watching them on Netflix and the show is letterboxed. Whereas other movies and shows are not.

 

There are black bars on either side, as there should be.
.

 

Yes, that's what I found. Pillar boxed as they say. 4:3 image in the middle of a 16:9 frame. For some reason my tv occasionally resets Netflix to zoom 4:3 material and I just have to go into the menu and reset it. My PS3 always maintained the correct ratio.

 

When black bars are on the side rather than top and bottom, it's called pillarboxed.

Short, overgeneralized answer: most old television was shot for video in 4:3, but 16:9 was common in motion pictures for ages.


edit/ Pinknik already got this.

 

I'm confused because most movies from the '30s to '50s should present just like The Twilight Zone or Magnum P.I.; they were all full frame. By letterboxed, do you mean windowboxed--black bars on all 4 sides?

 

Although early films were in the same square-like shape as old televisions, they quickly went in a rectangular direction, and indeed the wider shape was seen as a way to compete against television.

 

No. I put on a movie called Teacher's Pet - a Clark Gable movie from 1958. It played full screen like any modern film. Whereas Twilight Zone had the black bars on either side.

 

TZ

 

Now to the second question:

Should 16:9 remain the standard for the foreeseeable future?
It would be a damn shame if old movies, and classic shows were basically unwatchable, tiny boxed in images, due to aspect ratios.

 

According to IMDB, Teacher's Pet has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which looks like the screen shot you posted. That's exactly how it should look.

Your screenshot of The Twilight Zone also looks correct. A 1.33:1 image with black bars on the sides.

So I don't see anything wrong with either of those.

 

They're not going to be. Everything is fine AS IS.
.

 

I really need to take a visual arts class. So why does a 1.85:1 film basically look like modern widescreen film, and why does a 1.33:1 film need to be letterboxed?

 

There are a bunch of aspect ratios in film production, so it can get confusing.

Here are three basic film ratios:



There are others, but those are the three most common. HDTV is 1.78:1, so you can see that 1.85 closely resembles it and 1.33:1 is pillarboxed with black bars on the side.

The changeover from 1.33:1 to 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 began in 1953:

Widescreen Documentation - 3dfilmarchive »

 

And do you think 16:19 will remain the standard for monitors/non-theater TV screens for say, the next 10-20 years?

 

No matter which aspect ratio is considered to be standard for TVs, there will always be content which will not fit the AR exactly (without cropping) - always! I don't know why people get so hung up about seeing 'black bars' when the ARs don't match.

 

It just takes away from the experience.

 

Not for me. I'm too busy being engrossed on what's going on in the movie to notice what's not happening at the edges.

 

There are some wider monitors available, but yeah, for the most part, I figure 16:9 will remain the standard for home video monitors.

 

The next frontier is to build an image presentation technique that will obliterate these issues of aspect ratio once and for all.

 

The only technology that can do that is virtual reality (VR/AR). There are already some demonstration film clips that are attempting to do this with 360 degree views (Jungle Book clip IIRC), but you'll need to wear goggles. It's an exciting new frontier.

 

Mine's already here, I call it my brain.

 

Question boils down to really:
In 20 years, 30 years, will the classic PC games I play, which were designed for 4:3 monitors, be playable? Or just be tiny tiny boxes surrounded by gigantic black bars? Is there any hope of being able to play them (providing emulators and such) in the far future?

 

Can't use my brain while watching the idiot box.