If movie camera shoot in Widescreen, why did we make TV's square to begin with?
EVERY time you see a movie on TV, it says this has been formatted to fit your screen, which means they had to stretch/crop the picture... Nowadays, most NEW TV's are widescreen... but why were they square to begin with?
Just curious...
2007-10-05 11:19:45 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Consumer Electronics ➔ TVs
Standards in the US were set in 1941 by the National Television System Committee because the frequency carried by station could only hold a certain number of lines without signal loss and it had a ratio compatible with 4:3.
Which was set by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for films from the 1940s and 1950s now TV could play movies.
As movies started losing there audience the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed to widescreen 16:9 to boost profits and it worked.
Others were considered but this standard proved most efficient until 1953 when color was introduced it was modified to be backward compatible so that owners of black and white sets could still watch TV..
As technology got better it was changed again in 1980.
To simplfy :
movies use to be square then TV copied the movies,
movies became widescreen now TV is copying the movies, again.
2007-10-05 11:40:22 · answer #1 · answered by Man 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The first tv set my famly ever owned was in 1953.... it was a ROUND picture tube inside a square box... It had ONE HUGE KNOB for on/off and volume and NO channel changer since there was only ONE WORKING TV STATION..... channel 6 (WRGB) out of Schenectady, NY which is STILL operating today... the picture tube was about the size of a 7 inch plate..... I remember all 5 of us huddled around the tube in 1955 watching a newscast and then they started putting children's programs on... the Original Mickey Mouse Club--with a YOUNG Annette Funicello, Superman with George Reeves, and a show with Andy Devine and a little frog that was very fresh and sat on top of a podium.... saying "I'll be good, I will, I will, I will...."
2007-10-05 18:47:29 · answer #2 · answered by LittleBarb 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
cause back when TV were invented (in the 1950s) there was no such thing as widescreen. it also has to do with camera technology and broadcasting.
2007-10-05 18:29:16 · answer #3 · answered by BPL 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Probably so they'd fit on the selfs and so they'd sit "square" on the floor.
2007-10-05 18:29:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋