Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Drew345]

I was thinking about getting a big (flat) screen TV for my apartment. I went down to Costco and they had about 20 TV's, some big, flat screen and some regular, box "tube" TVs. The strange thing was, on every flat screen TV, the faces of the people were stretched out wide, like short and fat. The regular "tube" TVs had normal looking faces on the people.
On the way back I stopped in the local restaurant and they had a big screen TV on the wall with all faces looking short and fat. Went to the sauna and there was a big screen TV with all the faces looking short and fat.
I don't mean to make this into a "why do Koreans like fat faces on their TVs?" post, although that does seem strange.
I know that there is an "aspect ratio" setting on the TV which will make the faces look normal, but this will "turn off" or not use the two side edges of the TV, basically wasting the purchase of the big screen.
And I know that some movie DVDs are made for this widescreen aspect ratio, but 99% of the time (Costco, restaurant, sauna, my apartment) are showing TV, not DVD's.
So, I am wondering,
Do all TV broadcasts look "short and fat" on big screen TVs (or not use the two side edges of the TV)?
Are there any TV or cable broadcasts that are actually in the same aspect ratio as the big screen TVs?
It seems like I should just buy a regular aspect screen, rather than short and fat screen. Has anyone seen a flat screen TV that is regular ratio? Seems odd that they wouldn't even exist, since that is how all the TV and cable channels broadcast.
Thanks,
Drew

[pkang0202]

There are options on widescreen TV's on whether or not to stretch the picture to fit the screen or not.

If you don't stretch and you are viewing a 4:3 picture, then you will see bars on the left and right side of the TV.

The problem is that some TV shows are widescreen, others are 4:3. Then you have commericals that may or may not be widescreen too.

Personally, I'm a purist. If I'm watching a 4:3 broadcast, I want it shown in 4:3 on a widescreen TV, regardless of whether or not I'm wasting real estate.

[SuperHero]

[JustJohn]

Desires can't be correct or incorrect...


But back to the thread, most if not all regular TV is 4:3 and most if not all HD is widescreen, as are all movies (if they are in their original format). And like the other guys said you can set your widescreen display to show 4:3 without distortion, so basically you should go widescreen and not worry about it.

[hanguker]

Agreed, widescreen is best. Every cable company in Korea offers HD digital broadcasts in widescreen. Even the cheap 10 channel basic service in my apartment complex has 6 channels of HD. I don't know why your local shops don't tune into them. They're really very pretty.