CNET: iPhone not a true widescreen.

surfratsurfrat
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Just read this article over at the CNET blog, Crave. I was pretty surprised to find this out. Can anyone confirm if this is the case or not? If it's true, then why? Seems a little odd to me seeing as how many are calling this the "true" video iPod?



What do you guys think?



http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-967...?tag=cnetfd.mt

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    I would guess they designed what they though was the best compromise amongst all the competing functionalities of the iPhone. If it were a dedicated video player I would be surprised.



    As it is, the idea that a little cropping or a 1/4" of black letterboxing "comprises the wide screen experience" on a device this size seems silly.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    surfratsurfrat Posts: 341member
    Yeah, that's a good point. I guess for an ipod/phone/internet device, 16:9 just might not be the best choice.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    gregmightdothatgregmightdothat Posts: 1,709member
    There's no such thing as "true" widescreen. HDTV is 1.78:1 (16:9). Movie theatres in the US are commonly 1.85:1 or 2.40:1. Lots of theatres in Europe are 1.66:1. Ben-Hur was 2.76:1.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    We know the iphone isn't widescreen because when Steve showed Pirates of the Caribbean, it cut off the sides and he double-tapped it to go into proper widescreen size where it showed letterboxing. The PSP is the same:







    It's just not practical to have a widescreen device unless it is solely for viewing movies, which neither the iphone nor PSP are.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    macvaultmacvault Posts: 323member
    Steve Jobs said they were introducing a Widescreen iPod, a Phone, and an Internet Communicator. But then when he demos the thing by watching Pirates of the Carribean he had to "tap" on the screen to get the full "widescreen" view, otherwise the movie was cropped. You can see him doing it right in the keynote video. When I saw this I thought to myself, "this is suppose to be a widescreen". WTF!?
  • Reply 6 of 11
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Yeah I suppose they could have reduced the pixels and made it 280X480 rather than 320X480 and then it would have been widescreen for real, instead of this rip off!



    I don't get this line from the article: "The specs of the iPhone list a pixel count of 480x320. In and of itself, that doesn't prove anything: some displays utilize rectangular pixels, which allows them to deliver a true 16:9 picture." Huh? So you stretch some pixels lengthwise and that gives you widescreen?



    What's ironic is that people refer to the Zune's 320X240 - same as iPod - as "widescreen."
  • Reply 7 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    I think CNET was having a very, VERY slow news day if they had to resort to grade school arithmetic to create this sort of moronic non-issue. Jeez.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BRussell View Post


    Yeah I suppose they could have reduced the pixels and made it 280X480 rather than 320X480 and then it would have been widescreen for real, instead of this rip off!



    Bingo. With iPhone, you get widescreen video with controls at the bottom. The PSP is 480x272 or thereabouts.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gregmightdothat


    There's no such thing as "true" widescreen. HDTV is 1.78:1 (16:9). Movie theatres in the US are commonly 1.85:1 or 2.40:1. Lots of theatres in Europe are 1.66:1. Ben-Hur was 2.76:1.



    Yeah, that's why most theaters have motorized curtains. A lot of movies are 2.40:1 and 2.35:1 these days, and when viewed on HDTVs you still get black boxes.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    -df-df Posts: 136member
    It sure is wider than our old 4:3 TVs.



    Old 4:3 TVs / Pan & Scan movies = 1.33:1 aspect ratio



    iPhone ================ 1.5:1 aspect ratio



    Widescreen Cinema Display ==== 1.6:1 aspect ratio



    Widescreen movies vary greatly in their aspect ratios: 1.66:1, 1.76:1, 1.85:1, 2:1, 2.35:1 (Pirates)





    Basically, the "wideness" is between an old TV and your widescreen computer display, but closer to the display. Anything wider than this would probably make for an awkward phone when held portrait (it is a [i]phone, after all).



    In closing, it is wider than the Zune
  • Reply 10 of 11
    galleygalley Posts: 971member
    FWIW, PDAs have been 1.5:1 for years.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Galley View Post


    FWIW, PDAs have been 1.5:1 for years.



    PDAs are more commonly 240x320. 320x480 PDAs are more recent, and less common. 320x480 (or 480x320) isn't that common of a size for displays.
Sign In or Register to comment.