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Comment by tofukid | Hacker News Reader

Almost all TVs have an option to zoom to fit 4:3, so there’s no need to stream a cropped version. At least they should provide an option to view the original.

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Done well, aspect ratio conversion involves editorial decisions: what part of the frame is most important to preserve? This isn't something TVs can automate.

(Not advocating for cropping, though)

I imagine the situation will improve in the future with TVs that have one or two on-board cores for handling trained models (like Apple's newer chips) that can run models trained on editorial pan-and-scans and try to apply it as an alternative to scaling.

Just another reason not to do it. The only person who has the right to make those decisions is the original creator and they’d more likely just say ship it as intended.

I don't think most of them are going to object in cases like this where they have access to the original film and can include footage that was cut off in the original broadcast, assuming the re-framing is done with the same care that the original framing was.

They were making decisions based on a certain set of constraints that they didn't choose. They aren't going to have a problem with making different decisions when those constraints change.

Taking what was originally broadcast and cropping that is always a travesty, though.

Yes, watching Seinfeld on Netflix, the zoom-ins, the framing. I was enchanted.

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