Aspect Ratio for Ultrawide Monitors

[Anonymous User]

Hi, I have a 35inch Ultrawide Curved monitor at 21:9 aspect ratio. I have just got the Sky Cinema 3 month pass, and was wondering whether Now TV support 21:9 2560x1080. All the movies I am watching at the moment have black bars top, bottom, and sides, and won't fit the screen. I have other movie streaming services and they are all compatible with 21:9. I just wondering why Now TV isn't or if there is a setting I can change?

Thank's

Chris.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi @Anonymous User,

In short no. And I suspect it's the same with most, if not all, other media streaming services...

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

As nearly all movies now are shot in ultrawide for the cinema I find it quite unbelieveable. And in short I can name quite a few streaming sites that show full aspect ratio films at either 720p or 1080p I could even point you in the direction of quite a few illegal streaming sites that do just that (which I won't). 

Granted, Netflix and Amazon don't show full aspect for whatever reason. My question is why?

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

As nearly all movies now are shot in ultrawide for the cinema I find it quite unbelieveable. 

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Sadly, it's not as easy that @Anonymous User

The black mattes are 'hard encoded' above and below the visual image which means they are actually part of the image too. And as such they can't easily be removed. The mattes have to be hard encoded because that's what's specified within the DVD, Blu-ray and digital TV specifications.

The more you learn and understand how all these video, audio and container specifications interact with each other, you'll discover just how complicated the world of digital A/V actually is 😉

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

Just to get a little bump on this one...

There's still no proper support for 21:9.

Aslo, the 16:9 aspect ratio is transcoded into the stream by Sky, it's not part of the original video. Probably in a lazy attempt to reduce the number of support complaints in case the player plays the video back in the wrong aspect ratio.

This aspect ratio could easily be managed by the media player on the client side, like any regular media player.

I tried the Movies trial last month and I must say the service has a lot more good content that the likes of Netflix or Amazon, though, I'm not interested to pay €15 per month as long as I get thick black bars all around the video.

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

Aslo, the 16:9 aspect ratio is transcoded into the stream by Sky, it's not part of the original video.

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Hi @Anonymous User,

There is no such thing as 21:9 (2.35:1  approx) encoded content. It's all 16:9 with black bars/mattes hard encoded above and below the image to make it look like it's 21:9. So it is part of the original video... It's like this on all Blu-ray disc and UHD disc encoded content.

Sufficed to say, a 16:9 flag is embedded within the video stream for all 16:9 content. And a 4:3 flag is embedded within the video stream for all 4:3 content...

So, if you want the black bars/mattes to be removed, you'll have to configure your 21:9 display to remove them. Which in-turn will up-scale the image and reduce over-all sharpness as the 1:1 pixel mapping is lost.

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

So, no interest in accommodating modern display formats at all.
Too bad you're ignoring wide customer bases like that. Not that this is a unique behaviour from BskyB. The Android apps from Sky are classic examples of a company's inability to understand the market they're selling to, by restricting access by models instead of software versions, constantly shutting out customers with new devices.

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

So, no interest in accommodating modern display formats at all...

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If you're referring to me @Anonymous User, I don't work for NOW TV...

And as for the 21:9 display format size, it's a rarity. The standard display format size is 16:9. And this is not going to change anytime soon!

[Anonymous User]

It is a "rarity", but it's a format that's been around in a wider consumer base on PC for half a decade by now and it's steadily growing in popularity.
Not catering to the consumers who buys the latest tech is outright stupid. I mean, it's a lot more likely that those are the ones who are likely to be willing to pay for subscription services rather than stealing content on download sites.

[Anonymous User]

Here's an example of a streaming service who's taking their customers seriously:
Amazon Prime supports 21:9 playback.
Other reasons to add this support to Sky Movies is that it'll reduce bandwidth usage and server load. Something the guy in charge of maximizing profit margins should appreciate?
https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/4veinz/amazon_prime_video_now_supports_219_ful...