Sports on HDTV: Not using the whole screen...

Blue Donut has a rant on how sports are presented on HDTVs: specifically, all the shots are framed so that they could still be viewed on old, 4:3 ratio non-hi-def TVs. This means that all that extra screen real estate on wider, 16:9 ratio hi-def TVs is filled with nothing important - the crowd, empty field, etc. The name of this practice, Blue Donut says, is "center-cut protection." However, I would suggest that it's not all that bad - as TVs become bigger (and we sit the same distance from them), the experience becomes more immersive. More of the screen is in the viewer's peripheral vision - so the edges shouldn't contain anything important, because we won't really "see" it, we'll just "feel" it. Center-cut protection may be necessary for compatibility for now - but I almost hope that it stays on as a way to make television viewing comfortable, immersive, and balanced.
[via Gizmodo]