Although I read the "special report: digital TV" (1995-04, P.36) with great interest, I do not agree with the following statement.
"The picture will be presented in a panoramic horizontal-to-vertical aspect ratio of 16:9, as in the movies - a big improvement on the 4:3 aspect ratio of today's home receiver".
This "improvement" holds true only if you confine yourself to the showing of 35 mm or 70 mm movies on the HDTV. The development of Virtual Reality, however, is approaching the ultimate goal of direct retina scan at 4096 x 4096 pixels with an aspect ratio of 1:1. The "Report of the Task Force on Digital Image Architecture" by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers states "1:1 is emerging as a new display aspect ratio for certain applications".
The original HDTV aspect ratio of 15:9 was drawn up by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) in the late 1970's. It was based on a series of perception tests to come up with an optimum aspect ratio by the viewers watching small-screen TV sets at a time when few large-screen projection TV sets were available, flat-screen display was only a pipe dream, and personal computers were almost non-existent. Somehow, the ratio mysteriously became 16:9 in the U.S., and the entire TV industry seems to have been caught up by this paradigm for more than a decade.
This evolution resembles that of cinematography which has seen a similar aspect ratio change from the 35 mm format (7:4) to the 70 mm format (11:5). However, more recent large-format Imax films, which few people in the world had seen when the NHK tests were conducted, feature near 1:1 aspect ratio on a huge screen that almost covers the viewer's entire sight. Moreover, the Imax-Dome (formerly Omnimax) films, considered to give an ultimate viewing experience, are round just like the very original TV sets! This is consistent with the natural fact that the sight field of a human being is circular.
Even though the computer display was initially text oriented, it inherited the aspect ratio of 4:3 from the TV screen. As a result, it is very awkward to edit and read letter- or legal-size documents on a regular computer screen, requiring frequent scrolling up and down. Moreover, computer screen formats with various aspect ratios have been devised over the years, leading to today's chaotic situation. All the headaches with creating and printing documents with letter- or legal-size or European A/B size, or landscape or portrait orientation would be completely non-existent if simple 1:1 were the only aspect ratio for every human interface!
The Federal Communications Commission and the North American TV industry should make a logical decision based on rational thinking and common sense. The question is "What is the ideal HDTV aspect ratio for the sake of better civilisation?". I firmly believe that the answer is 1:1 which will not only simplify everything, but also help merge the existing TV and computer display formats, give us comfortable HDTV viewing on a large wall-mounted screen at home just as Imax-Dome films do in the theatres today, and eventually lead to Virtual Reality experience with direct retina scan.
Thank you very much for your attention.
P.S. If you decide to publish my comments, I would appreciate your including my E-mail address.
