arcorp@utcsri.UUCP (Alias Research Corporation) (05/24/85)
> > Personally, I could care less if my tapes did not even fit, let > >alone play in, regular Beta vcrs. > You might not care, but it is VERY important to maintain > compatability. You are absolutely right. The distributors are balking at having to convert to HiFi - surely they would refuse to support another incompatible format unless there was a great demand (there isn't). Onto another topic... Scanning of widescreen films. It's a bad problem for home video. I saw a brochure for a Sony professional video projection system that will work on flat screens. What really intrigued me about it was its ability to ALTER THE ASPECT RATIO OF THE PROJECTED PICTURE. (ie change the proportions of the image). If you team this projector up with a disc or tape containing a feature film that looks stretched (like the closing credits of widescreen films shown on TV) then the result is an electronic decoding of the anamorphic effect. Suddenly you are watching a wide picture. Such discs could be made for videophiles, and they would be difficult to watch on an ordinary TV set, unless you vertically compressed the picture using the vertical size control. In fact, it should be quite easy to manufacture monitors with a switch that would compress the picture. Has anyone seen one of these projectors used in such a manner? Would ordinary video have enough quality to look good even after being stretched out to widescreen on such a projector? Are videophiles interested in such esoteric things, or would this be stretching it? (pun intended). Stephen Y. Trutiak allegra! utcsri! alias! steve