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Watching movies on an iPad: What you see is what you get

by David Winograd Jan 27th 2010 at 9:45PM


Watching a movie on the new iPad will not as pleasurable experience as you might think. The screen being 1024x768 pixels is in a 4:3 ratio which is the exactly the same as an old CRT television set. Many of us are have gone on from there and are luxuriating in the glory of our 16x9 aspect HDTVs.

It turns out that 16x9 will give you big honking black bars at the top and bottom of your screen as you can see by the green bar in the image above, and anything above or below it will be displayed as black bars.

It gets worse, lots worse. Let's say you're playing a regular, non-widescreen movie which has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. In that case anything above or below the blue area will be black bars.

Now we get to ribbon-vision. Most widescreen films, from Star Wars to the new Star Trek were filmed in 2:35:1. This and all other resolutions mentioned refer to how wide the screen is as compared to how high. So these films are 2:35 times wider than they are high, and result in a mere ribbon on the iPad screen. Without measuring, it seems to me that a full half of the screen in landscape mode will be filled with black bars.

One last kick in the pants. Having a resolution of 1024x768 pixels there is no way that you can display the gold standard of today's high-definition of 1080p. There just aren't enough pixels.

So iBooks make sense, but movie watching will be somewhat limited. People frequently say that they really can't watch movies on an iPhone or iPod touch, since the resulting display is so small. The iPad will absolutely be better, but still at a trade-off.

Thanks to Blake Walters for creating the chart and tipping us off about this.

Note: Some users have questioned the graphic, so I'm posting a revised version by Arash Ayrom which is correct. I'm not sure who is correct, but hopefully it will come out in the comments. Either way, I'm still not happy being a purist with the home theater to prove it. I have little interest watching Ghost Busters in pan and scan where Ernie Hudson is hardly even in the film. DW.
Here is Arash's graphic:




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Watching a movie on the new iPad will not as pleasurable experience as you might think. The screen being 1024x768 pixels is in a 4:3...
 

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107 Comments

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sajaki

before yabbing on about screensizes, it's worth noting that there's no dvd slot in this thingy. only a "HD" play. which sucks doubletime because you've got to download the movie first.

April 04 2010 at 7:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vicsajo

The problem I have with my luxurious home screen is that it's very difficult to tote it around with me, and Ikeep running out of extention cord the further I get from home. It's also cumbersome on my lap in an airplane or fit in the overhead compartment. Seriously. If you want to watch movies "on the go" --please tell me....which of the myriad of 2.35:1 portable aspect web-surfing, email checking, app-running screens I shold purchase instead?

March 10 2010 at 9:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Donn

I have been watching 2:35:1 content on my fat nano for years, and I've been perfectly happy with it. I'm sure loads of people have been watching marquee movies in that aspect ratio on their iPhones, just as happily. So what, again, is the problem with having a lap device that shows the same movie at 4x the size? Who cares about "black bars?" I don't dread them in the least; they're just a fact of life for watching variable aspect ratio content on a fixed-size screen.

March 08 2010 at 12:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Donald Smith

I can live with this aspect.

February 24 2010 at 4:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
KeynoteKen

No, the solution is 4 portable devices, each one that is sized to the content that's best for it. A bit expensive, but for those who are sticklers about this sort of thing, money is no object.

January 30 2010 at 7:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Pat

A whole lot of noise about nothing!

I want an iPad and will be very happy watching movies on it. It's a great device for casually browsing the internet, reading, email and yes watching movies. If your that much of a "purist with the home theatre" then you can sit in your bed holding your 50" HDTV but I'm going to love the iPad for everything that it can do.

January 29 2010 at 2:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
luc

I'm more surprised that the screen ratio doesn't match the iPhone's 1.5:1.

I thought that would have made it easier for apps to run on both platforms

January 28 2010 at 8:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

Every iPod that plays video up to the iPod touch has a 4:3 screen. Why is it bad? The iPhone is almost a 4:3 screen.

January 28 2010 at 3:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian

Accurate comparison:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianrossen/4312042300/

January 28 2010 at 3:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
NateF

If the second graphic is the correct one, why not get rid of the other one?

January 28 2010 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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