I was watching the preview for next week and I noticed when they showed Sally Field that the picture was in letter box form. Are they doing that now? I hope they don't because I hate letter box form because it makes the characters seem smaller and it's not that great. Especially those with smaller televisions. So is this actually going to happen?

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), October 27, 2000

Answers

I checked my tape and I don't think its going to be letter box form. I think it was just the way they did the ad.

-- James (eorejim@aol.com), October 27, 2000.

Yep, starting November 16th..

they talked about it on E.T. yesterday...

-- Sitara (artemis@sundarams.org), October 27, 2000.

Are you serious? Why are they doing this? I am so not liking what I'm hearing. Letter box form sucks IMO.

-- Andie (non@no.com), October 27, 2000.

Hate to ask this, I'll probably look stupid, but here it goes... Can someone please explain what letterbox form is? I do not know.

Thanks

Amy

-- Amy (forest_gurl@hotmail.com), October 28, 2000.

Letterbox form is when the picture on the tv is in a wider version. It's where there is a black bar on the top and bottom of the screen. I like that you can see more on the sides but those stupid black bars annoy me!

-- Lauren (ldk83@yahoo.com), October 28, 2000.

Now that I know what letterbox form is (thank you Lauren) I can now contribute to this post. Why oh Why would they use letterbox form? What is the point? Do any other TV shows use letterbox forms/ None that I know of. I really hope that ER does not use letterbox form.

Amy

-- Amy (forest_gurl@hotmail.com), October 28, 2000.

I'm not sure about what kind of film TV shows have, but with movies, they use film that fits on the screen, and if it is letterboxed (or widescreen...I'm pretty sure it's the same thing) that means they fit everything in, but if a video isn't letterboxed they use "pan scan", which doesn't look as good because they have to scan across to get the whole picture in, or else they just cut off the sides. I'm thinking they can do more tricky camera work if they do this, but since my TV is tiny, I won't like it either. I was really surprised to hear someone say that they actually talked about doing it.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), October 28, 2000.

I heard that ER is changing over to digital cameras and the only way they work in is letterbox form. I just hope it doesn't look squished or anything.

-- Lauren (ldk83@yahoo.com), October 30, 2000.

My guess is that ER is PROBABLY being shot in movie proportions now, and that what you're seeing IS a cropped picture.

Letterbox is really not that bad once you get used to it. You're sacrificing height for a wider picture.

-- Tracy (bankybooda@aol.com), October 30, 2000.

Yeah, I agree. I think the camera work will be more impressive...digital is pretty high tech. I think we might be impressed once we see it. Actually, the black letterbox on the screen (w/ Sally Field) did not seem to be too thick...I've seen much thicker letterbox than that!

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), October 30, 2000.

The move to "letterboxing" may also mean they are going to be broadcasting simultaneously with an HDTV signal. I'm beginning to see some shows indicate they are doing this.

I still don't think I'm going to go out and buy a $2000 to $6000 television set.

-- Chris (lansdaalfamily@home.com), October 30, 2000.

The ER Daily News sight wrote that they were not sure if this was permanent or just for the episode introducing Sally Field's character.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), October 30, 2000.

My experience with Letterbox has been to find it annoying for about five minutes and then to not even notice it, so give it a little time and it probably won't matter.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), November 01, 2000.