Receive instant notification of new articles:
Register Now to receive notification of new HDTV Magazine Articles via email as soon as they are published.
The following article is the latest in the CinemaScope™ series by Rodolfo La Maestra. Other articles in this series are as follows:
Anyone can relate to how CinemaScope brings the movie experience to the eyes, some of us can even remember the Cinerama experience over 40 years ago, almost everyone is familiarized with the term and meaning of HDTV, and with HT (Home Theater). So I created the term "CinemaScope HDHT" because it is actually blending the 3 concepts and technologies into one, and this series of articles is about implementing the 3 concepts, at your home, finally with consumer products. For some people the choice of 16:9 (aspect ratio of 1.78:1 for HDTV) has been cut short as aspect ratio and not wide enough to convey the typical feeling of wide-screen movies. If the movie itself has been filmed in a wider aspect ratio, like most movies do at 2.35:1, it means that the 16:9 HDTV set would have to show the movie image with top/bottom black bars to compensate for its wider geometry. It also means that the image would occupy a smaller space within the 16:9 cabinet frame of the TV, giving the impression of missing something above and below. Actually, those black bars use part of (waste) the precious resolution of the media and of the TV (panel, chip, etc). The movie image in between the bars ends up not as resolved as the Hi Def DVD media and the HDTV equipment make you believe they could be on their advertising schemes. That 1080p holy-grail TV you eagerly bought would actually end up using about 70% of its capable resolution for the actual 2.35:1 image, because the black bars use the other 30% of the available resolution for just black lines. As to the media side, the Hi Def DVD disc containing a wide-screen 2.35:1 movie would actually store those black bars in the disc above and below the image, wasting 30% of real state occupied by the video, and the player would play them back through your TV/projector as if they were part of the movie. Black bars, top and bottom, a wide-screen image in a wide-screen TV and still bars, hmmm... 16:9 HDTV was supposed to be the way of the future, a wide-screen solution wider than the legacy 4:3 NTSC system, but wait, let us look at the other side. We still tune to lots of programming recorded in 4:3, that when displayed on a 16:9 HDTV would have two pillar bars at each side to compensate for the different geometry of that "squarish" 4:3 image. Although one can still stretch the 4:3 image to fill the 16:9 frame of the TV, some viewers dislike faces that become too fat, heads or feet cut by the image expansion, game scores that are usually down below in the image on an ESPN sport program become out of the viewing area due to the expansion, etc. Some TVs have scrolling capabilities to let you move up/down edges of the viewing area to bring back pieces of the image, like bringing up the server player on a tennis baseline at the bottom of the screen, but most sets do not have such capability, they only have a couple of image stretching modes, non-standard modes that the TV designer expects you to like, if you know what I mean. Black bars again, now with pillars on the side, not much we could do about legacy but, hmmm... People thought that we were getting rid of black bars when switching from 4:3 TVs to 16:9 HDTVs, especially to view wide-screen movies, but unfortunately is not quite that way. Black bars, on the four sides, and sometimes all at the same time within the same program, are here to stay for the long journey of our new system of 16:9 HDTVs, whether you have a TV or a panel, because all HDTV cabinets are cut as 16:9. There has to be black bars because the physical aspect ratio of the TV cabinet cannot change to adapt to the aspect ratio of the media. So you think, there it goes my CinemaScope dream, not quite. If you are looking for a front projection solution for your HT wide-screen movies and for your HDTV viewing, there is something you could now do for the wide-screen dream on CinemaScope.
That is exactly the subject of these articles, how to implement your own "CinemaScope HDHT (High Definition Home Theater)" for wide-screen movies in a HDTV HT projection environment. Remember those emotions flowing when viewing that large wide-screen image at the local theater, and you were fully immersed in the action? An image that excited the very wide angles of your horizontal vision in a way that no NTSC and no HDTV and no Hi def DVD could do, regardless of the resolution they might have, this about the effect of increasing aspect ratio, and increasing the angle of view, not just resolution. CinemaScope HDHT certainly benefits with more resolution, but just having 720p, 1080i, or even 1080p would not do, they can only show more pixels, or show them faster to be more suitable to fast action on the image, but the geometric difference of most movies vs. the smaller aspect ratio of TV, NTSC or HDTV, can not be fully addressed by resolution increases alone. Although some people use their existing projection systems with zoom and masking to adapt to those differences, the resolution lines are still lost to black lines, behind the masks, but lost. Over the last few years a few companies have been working overtime to bring wide-screen CinemaScope movie viewing to consumers at home, and brought to market several technologies together, electronic and optical, and now relatively affordable to regular consumers looking for their own HT projection environments now that 1080p projectors have become so affordable. However, there are still some areas that a designer/installer has to carefully address to make sure the pieces of a system fit with each other, because a wide-screen anamorphic lens manufacturer needs to work with the projector manufacturer, and both need a scaler manufacturer with a suitable product, and a lens transport manufacturer, installation hardware manufacturer, etc. Many of these companies are working hard to offer consumer-transparent harmonic multi-product solutions, and some projector manufacturers are even taking over the responsibility to deliver all the pieces manufactured by other vendors specially tailored to their projectors, but it is always a good idea to hire a local installer that knows about how to install a CinemaScope concept. One can always add to the project the non-electronics part of making that CinemaScope home-theater looking like a real theater, with columns, dark ceilings, seats, etc., and that is not within the scope of these articles. The audio part is not covered, and is assumed the consumer would already have a multi-channel audio system. Up until recently the coordination efforts of fitting the products was left to the creativity of individual home theater enthusiasts, people that had to perform various tailored solutions to make things work, some not designed to work together, no instructions in most cases, some were personal inventions of manually made anamorphic lens and other parts built for the pieces of the HT to fit well with the rest. Some magazines take one area, and entice you to immerse your efforts for a full project without necessarily telling the whole story, weak areas that could go wrong, and affect the rest of the project, and most generally the overall budget. Advertising is easy, reaching the final objective and investing your own money in a real project and technical solution is not, and the regular consumer should be made aware of the roadblocks and the collateral expenses that a dream CinemaScope project could entail. No magazine covers the whole story, and you should be prepared before you start signing the first check. One thing is the theory, another very different thing is actually doing it, and so I decided to be a Guinea Pig and invest my own money on this concept, and help our readers with the articles. I decided to dedicate a new room for this experience and technical challenge to see what is possible for a regular consumer with current electronics and optics. This is not about building and beatifying a HT with seats, columns, popcorn machines, curtains, star ceiling, that is easy, many companies do such projects, this is about how to get the CinemaScope video solution to work, you add your own audio. Over the last couple of months I contacted several manufacturers to work together with them, and get their latest products, some of them were prototypes. I agreed with them that I would write these articles to tell the true story to the consumer and that they will collaborate in documenting the effort. I also contacted local dealers, installers, an ISF calibrator, etc. exactly the same way any consumer would have to do, this was not about using my experience and capabilities of doing the project, this was about doing the steps that a regular consumer would have to do, and paying the bills any consumer would have to pay, no discounts, no breaks, no freebies. Just like other magazines do, don't they? This is the only way these articles could be of value to you the consumer. Stay tuned for Part II, and welcome to the beauty of CinemaScope HDHT.
Posted by Rodolfo La Maestra, January 25, 2007 4:30 AM
Reader Commentary The quote "like most movies do at 2.35:1, implies to me that most movies are made at 2.35. I believe that today far more movies are made at 1.85. Some westerns, a lot of sci-fi, and the occasional drame are made at 2.35, but almost everthing is made at 1.85. Perhaps more so than before to more easily fit 1.78 screens. Some have started referring to 2.35 as 2.40. Ican't speak to this, but wonder should we also discuss the original 2.35 Cinemascope II films as 2.40? Cinemascope I was 2.55 and the actual negative was 2.66.... Thanks for this series of articles. I recently built a home theater built around a 16:9 720p projector. The concept of CH / cinemascope is interesting to me. I think your initial article is a great start. I'm looking forward to the follow-ups. One question and a comment I would like to see addressed in the future installments: Question: If you build a 2.35:1 CH theater, and you plan to watch at least some 16:9 or (gasp) 4:3 material in that theater, then you are not really getting rid of the black bar problem. Instead, you're simply making the choice to live with vertical sidebars when you watch non-2.35 material. Correct? Comment: It seems to me that the screen size should match the native format of the projector. That's the only way to maximize the available projector resolution. So, if you want to go with a 2.35:1 setup, why not demand a projector with that native format? Those probably exist, but I've never tripped over one in many hours of projector research. I suspect t... Part of the issue is,: when designing HD-DVD/Blue Ray, why didn't they figure out a way to lose the bars on whatever side. I realize that, once compressed, the black bars don't take up much room, but a more elegant solution would be to just have ths sytem identify and recognize the proper format, be it 1.33, 1.37, 1.66, 1.78, 1.85, 2.00, 2.2, etc. The system could pass this info along to the smart display device, which would handle it accordingly. I believe that some of the projectors can be set up for multiple formats, including 2.35. As an aside, when we watched movies in the Navy at sea, the 16mm projector had one lens. It could be adjusted for at least 1.85 and 2.35. I don't recall what we did for 1.33 or 1.66 (which used to be an occasional formaat, especially in films from Europe).... When the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) drafted the then new 16x9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio the idea of a screen that could use all of the aspect ratios including the old Edison format 4x3 (1.33:1) was discussed. Theaters attracted patrons in 1953 with Twentieth Century Fox's film "The Robe". An anamorphic lens put in front of the camera photographed the scene by compressing the width of the horizontal image by 2. Upon projection another anamorphic lens spread the film image by 2. Thus a 4x3 (1.33:1) image could be projected onto a screen 16x6 (2.66:1). The sound track on another film was synchronized with the image film. The result a wide screen movie from a 4x3 image onto a 16x6 screen. Most theaters in those days had balconies and/or the ceilings limited the height of the projected image so the anamorphic lens was an instant success for Fox. Today the greater majority are filmed with regular "spherical" lenses that do not squeeze the image but ... I believe the original format was 1.37 and became the Acedemy 1.33 when they alloted room for the optical audio track. I've never heard it called the Edison format, but it wouldn't surprise me if he originated it. I once read that the 35mm format came from slicing 70mm film, which apparently was the standard (or at least readible available) for the still film negatives, in half. The compression I was referring to was the MPEG compression, not anamorphic compression. I don't knoe how digital projectors go from 1.85 to 2.35.... Edison is credited with inventing movies hence the 4x3 image he used is sometimes refered to as "The Old Edison format". Film is made on big wide rolls and are slit to the desired width. For motion picture and other uses sproket holes are added after the film is made and slit to the desired width. You are correct the 1.37 image is projected in 1.33 by masking with the aperature plate in the projector. As far as aspect ratio screens there are only two in the TV world 4x3 (1.33:1) and 16x9 (1.78:1). The 4x3 is expected to dissapear on February 17, 2009 when all analog transmitters are to be turned off. However 4x3 will be around for a long time because 4x3 is legacy and will be with us for a long time. 16x9 is the best screen compromise when 4x3 is included. Otherwise 2:1 is the best overall choice and that is what the movie theaters have gone to.... I will cover the comments/questions in one post to avoid splitting the material. When I finished typing the last paragraph of this response to the several questions I realized that I typed 4 pages of material that might appear in the next articles, but is done. My use of the word CinemaScope as applied for this project is also to convey the idea of being wider than 1.78:1 (HDTV), and anything wider would produce bars in presentation, and the bars use space, and use chip resolution, considering that most projectors today are chip based DLP, LCD, LCoS, and most recently 1080px1920 resolution in 1 or 3 chips. Their chips are fixed to the resolution of their design; the geometry of the CinemaScope movie (again, anything wider than 1.78:1 for this general article purpose) would require that the chip use parts of it for the bars to be projected on the screen. The articles are for making readers aware that there is a way around other than loosing that resolution of the projector, ... hdtvjim, Regarding your comment: "The 4x3 is expected to dissapear on February 17, 2009 when all analog transmitters are to be turned off. " What makes you think that the DTV deadline would make 4:3 disappear? Please review the DTV formats on the Glossary: http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/glossary.php HDTV is the only format that is "16:9 only" but the DTV mandate is not for HDTV, is for DTV in general, of which HDTV is only the higher resolution formats, and is not even mandated. 480i and 480p formats of the mandated DTV could be 16:9 and 4:3. In addition, ther will be tons of legacy 4:3 content that will continue to be delivered as 4:3 for years to come. Best Regards, Rodolfo La Maestra... hdtvjim, I believe you should review at the way movies of wider AR are actually stored in DVD (Hi Def or regular). Your statement of: "For Home Theater If you could buy an HD DVD or Blue Ray DVD with a compressed image in the 16x9 high definition format then its16x9 video frame would have to be stretched from the 1920 pixel width with an anamorphic lens to fill a 2.35:1 screen and still maintain the 1080 pixel height. This would require an anamorphic with a with only a 32% stretch of the image. (BTW anamorphic films today are 2.39:1.) " You are missing the point, the 16x9 video frame contains the wider image with its bars into it, to fill the 1080, which means that the projector would not use all its 1080 pixels of the chip for the image but for the bars as well, and that is not resolved by just using anamorphic lenses and stretching laterally. You need a combination of scaler and lens to use the full potential of the projector chip, and to show a larger 2.35:1 image t... <joke>So, you reject 'pan and scan', but you're ok with 'stretch and crop'</joke> Actually, I appreciate the effort you've made to make this a real-world experiment, and I look forward to your future installments.... More from Rodolfo La Maestra
More in Category: Products & Equipment
About Rodolfo La MaestraRodolfo La Maestra is the Senior Technical Director at HDTV Magazine and participated in the HDTV vision since the late 1980's. In the late 1990's, he began tracking all HDTV consumer equipment, and since 2002 he authors the annual HDTV Technology Review report covering HDTVs, Hi-def DVD, content providers, broadcast, cable, satellite, government, standards, connectivity, content protection, H/DTV tuners and DVRs, etc. In addition Rodolfo has authored a variety of tutorials, books, and educative articles for HDTV Magazine, DVDetc, and HDTVetc Magazines, Veritas et Visus Newsletter, Display Search, and served as technical consultant/editor for the "Reference Guide" and the "HDTV Glossary of Terms" for HDTVetc and HDTV Magazines. In 2004, he began recording a weekly HDTV technology program for MD Cable television, which by 2006 reached the rating of second most viewed by the public, here is the opening episode.Rodolfo's background encompasses Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, and Audio and Video Electronics, over 4,700 hours of professional training, a BS in Computer and Information Systems, and over thirty professional and post-graduate certifications, some from American, George Washington, and MIT Universities. Rodolfo was also Computer Science professor for over 700 students in five institutions between 1966-1973 in Argentina, for IBM, Burroughs, and Honeywell mainframes. After 38 years of computer systems career, Rodolfo retired in 2003 as Chief of Systems Development from the Inter-American Development Bank where he directed 65 software-development computer professionals, supporting member countries in north/central/south America 24x7. In parallel, from 1998 he helped the public with his other career of audio/video electronics. Rodolfo started with hi-end audio in the early 60’s and merged with Home Theater video, multichannel audio, widescreen laser disc, anamorphic DVD, 16x9 NTSC displays, HDTV, Hi-def DVD, IPTV, HDMI, and 2.35:1 Cinemascope HD Home Theater over the past 40+ years. When HDTV started airing in November 1998, he was an early adopter of HDTV and realized that the technology as implemented would overwhelm regular consumers due to its complexity, and it certainly does even today. Rodolfo then launched his HDTV mission of educating and helping consumers understand the complexity, the challenge, and the beauty of the technology, so the public learns to appreciate HDTV not just as another television. |
advertisement
Authors
Categories
Other Recent Discussion
|
||||||||
Using the concept of "constant height", which is maintaining the same image height of the screen for both 16:9 and 2.35:1 material, an electronic /optical solution can display a wider image by making wider the sides of your viewing area, just like some elegant local theaters still do when the main feature is about to start and roll the large curtains laterally to let open a much wider screen. Get the popcorn now. 
© 1998 - 2010 HDTV Magazine, Ltd.
Home |
Advertise | Contact Us | About HDTV Magazine | Help | 
RSS Feedsv3.0
