Fat TV Faces

I love my daughter and son-in-law and they take good care of us, BUT don't make me watch TV at their house. They have one of those awful hi-def TVs. Just because it is huge (probably the size of all of ours put together), doesn't mean you have to stretch out a regularly transmitted show to the edges, but they do. This makes everyone look about 50 pounds over weight, and terribly out of proportion. Joe Morgenstern (WSJ, 9-22) agrees:

Almost all flat panel TVs are tailored to the proportions of the hi-def transmission--they have screens with 16:9 aspect ratios--but they don't all receive hi-def signals, and most programs are still being beamed conventionally, in a squarish 4:3 format that was never meant to fill a wide screen.

Since they made the investment, they want their programs to fill the screen; never mind that 4:3 programs are correctly displayed on 16:9 panels ONLY WITH BLACK BARS FLANKING THE IMAGE. Compact cars resemble stretch limos and puffy faces look lik their cheeks have been pulled out in opposite directions."

I feel a lot better now.