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Comment by mavhc | Hacker News Reader

dear cnn plane filmer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA&feature=youtu.be

It'd be nice if video sites supported arbitrary aspect ratios and displayed them correctly. I can't turn my monitor to view videos in page orientation -- well, I could, but I won't -- but I can easily turn my phone. Movies are wide screen for good reason, but I'm sure there are genres well suited to page orientation.

Agreed. That might put an end to the endless complaints on reddit and other sites about vertical videos.

The problem is, when you hold your phone horizontally it's painfully obvious to other people you're taking a video. Holding it vertically allows for being more discreet. You might just be texting or something.

Smartphone manufacturers could also solve this problem by somehow auto-rotating the camera internally.

"Nobody cares about you!"

That made me laugh harder than anything yet this month.

Actually, it looks like the video was edited to become vertical after the fact. Look at the blurry images in the sides of the video.

I always assumed that broadcasters added those blurry sidebars in on purpose from data in the middle section so that they weren't just displaying blank black bars on two-thirds of the screen.

There is a funny podcast (accidental tech podcast) episode where Marco and Casey discuss how they had to explain to the phone camera operator how important it is to shoot landscape, all whilst going round the Nuremberg ring.

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