Why is there no display aspect ratio controls?

TripleTopper321 · May 8, 2020

I remembered the Xbox Prime (for lack of a better word, because you turn the word "One" into the name of the third Xbox system) and the Xbox 360 had a simple ratio choice: what is the ratio of your TV? A) 16 by 9 or B) 4 by 3. And whatever you selected
you got the biggest picture possible with the highest resolution while keeping the original aspect ratio of the movie or TV as it was originally intended. (Since games are newly created, individual game makers could either distort (least used) zoom or box
and content so that their artistic vision can be preserved no matter what your TV is.

However the problem comes when the Xbox One machine assumes all TVs connected to it will have a 16 by 9 ratio. For example, I picked up a VGA CRT because I heard that even the best modern TN display have a ping time that could ruin video games (usually
most games nowadays are manufactured with that in mind). And the TV looks like it's in skinny scope, it's a play on words from the fact it's a cinemascope filmed feature squished out of a 4 by 3 screen and filling the whole picture with no black bars makes
people look tall and thin, like Paula Abdul in the "Promise of a New Day" video.

luckily this is a PC monitor with built-in controls and a monitor OS separate from the computer. I bought an HDMI to VGA adapter and plugged it straight in, change the TV setting to 720P and fiddled around with the vertical and horizontal squishing of the
screen. I use the test mode to adjust my screen so that the squares with perfectly square in the circles of perfectly circle and the screen fit 16 by 9.

The problem is what happens if I watch 4 by 3 media like my DVD ours or even worse Xbox 360 games that were originally meant to be played on 4x3 TVs optically? Am I missing some information on the top and bottom of the screen and does it stay 16 x 9, or
does it look like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, or does it distort people to make Sagat look like E Honda?

Then you got more problems like people going in the opposite direction and getting ultra-wide screens how are those going to fit too?

Finally imagine if you had to play Donkey Kong, which is 3x4 media, on a 22x9 screen.

Finally I'll post one final thing a Microsoft about CRTs and gameplay and the myths about energy savings and recycling of CRT TVs. But that's a different subject.

:)

Tezzarrific

most aspect ratio is controlled by the tv now, the xbox will output whatever ratio is the source, ie, a 4.3 video will either stretch or the tv with compensate and place it into 4:3

TripleTopper321

I thought they were other ratios like wider than 16 by 9. And these are not projectors that you can variably adjust. These are fixed 22 by 9 screens.

By the way the cutdown to 4 by 3 does not letterbon on a VGA CRT. Instead squishies at horizontally and you have to adjust it using the monitor controls. I would buy a 16 by 9 VGA CRT except I don't think they ever did make those, or if they did they're
awfully expensive.

By the way I've discovered some interesting facts about the CRT recycling business. It's on a separate forum that was started by me. I'm not that big on the CRT for the effect or for the ratio. For me it's the ping time. And if you're a gamer, that's
what matters most.

TripleTopper321

I'm not talkin about 4 by 3 media on a 16 by 9 display. I'm talking about a 4 by 3 display showing media that is 16x9.

If I were to watch 4 by 3 media on a 4 by 3 TV that has been set in 16 by 9 mode it would look like I'm looking through the wrong end of a telescope .

And I don't exactly have a cinema size CRT TV the CRT TV is around 15 in so therefore you're making it really small if the Xbox One is unaware of the TV size it's been connected to.

Maybe the setting should say TV size is a automatic 4x3, 16x9, enter your own ratio, in the form of either a decimal or a fraction with whole numbers on the numerator and denominator.

I guess my Xbox One cannot sense my VGA CRT.

SwordofWhedon

Xbox One is not designed to be con ected to analog televsions, unlike its predecessors, so support for 4:3 displays isnt in the cards.

4:3 content will be displayed with black bars on the sides. .

Ultrawide monitors can have native support, but no one is supporting 4:3 anymore

The 4:3 signal is displayed in the center of the screen. Those that purchase such displays know what they’re getting into. You can also purchase a variable aspect ratio projector for use with a seperate screen

IceStorm III

[quote user="NanoTechSoldier"]A proper aspect ratio for 16:9, is a 4:3 resolution of 1024x768...[/quote]I invite you to read the Wikipedia entry I linked on
pixel aspect ratio. It explains why pixel aspect ratios other than 1:1 are used as well as how display aspect ratio, pixel aspect ratio, and storage aspect ratio relate to each other.

The really, really short version is that 1024x768 16:9 displays scale the input to fit the available pixels for display.

Why is there no display aspect ratio controls?