I find the period where television was transitioning from 4:3 to 16:9 an interesting one. When broadcasting began in 16:9, but people were still actively using 4:3 televisions, broadcasters would commonly either letterbox the content or expect the left and right edges to be cropped. This led to a period where television series direction avoided putting anything too important at the horizontal edges of the frame. Cinema faced similar challenges, and either embraced pan-and-scan, letterboxing, or careful reframing from a wider image.
View transitions: Handling aspect ratio changes
Tips and tricks to get the transition you want
RatioBuddy - Aspect ratio calculator
RatioBuddy is a fast, simple aspect ratio calculator. Designed & built by Damn Fine.
Television
Television is a visual interface for personal agents, a space for creating, arranging, and reusing artifacts.
HD TVs Ruined Sitcoms
Aspects of Reality - The Dooyeweerd Pages
(Designed to be readable on phones; for widescreens, reduce window width.)
TV Tropes
TV Tropes, the all-devouring pop-culture wiki, catalogs and cross-references recurrent plot devices, archetypes, and tropes in all forms of media.
Sony Revolution
Why did BBC Breakfast give Reform UK a special graphic?
A small detail in a brief report sparks some big questions about what the national broadcaster is doing during the run up to local and national elections.
Too Much TV: Substack Is Going To Give Me A Stroke
And I take a look at the new Paramount, circa 2029.
TV on the internet before YouTube
Just a little note to get this all in one place. This was prompted by my comment here: On-demand was a thing before, but it was mediated through slow, glitchy cable and satellite boxes. There was also a thriving scene of RSS-delivered web TV shows. * The technology (RSS)
media minimization
Media minimization refers to the minimization of the kind of media that is usually high-bandwidth, such as images and videos.
The Substackerati
Did a newsletter company create a more equitable media system—or replicate the flaws of the old one?
