The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ratinox

But you're not wrong about bad pan and scan conversions. The most egregious for me is the original VHS release of "Ghostbusters" when the trio are in the elevator (the "Switch me on" scene). The cropping shows only two of them: the switched on proton pack and its wearer are almost entirely off screen. That scene convinced me that I'd rather have letter boxed video than bad cropping.

An obsession that the screen must be filled!

I've always rather have black space, (top or at sides. Some WS is 1.66). Even today there is too much cropping for TV WS 1.78.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

Although there are reflowable PDFs, the ones I generate aren't. When I'm talking about a one-off, I thinking of making a single word bold and it's the only thing that is bold in my entire ebook. To me its not worth the effort to go through the process of making a style. If it is used throughout the book then I would create a character style for it.

It sounds like your PDF are image based.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

An obsession that the screen must be filled!

I've always rather have black space, (top or at sides. Some WS is 1.66). Even today there is too much cropping for TV WS 1.78.

I like the correct aspect ration with no cropping of the picture. The main TV is 65" so I'm good with that.

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Quoth

An obsession that the screen must be filled!

I've always rather have black space, (top or at sides. Some WS is 1.66). Even today there is too much cropping for TV WS 1.78.

I'd much rather have pillar boxed or letter boxed, and be able to see the scene the way it was filmed.

There is a scene in the movie Desk Set, with the 3 main characters at a small dining table. When cropped, you only see the center character, and the hands of the other 2 on each side. It ruins the scene completely. It's a perfect example of why pan and scan for 4.3 aspect ratio is terrible.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I'd much rather have pillar boxed or letter boxed, and be able to see the scene the way it was filmed.

There is a scene in the movie Desk Set, with the 3 main characters at a small dining table. When cropped, you only see the center character, and the hands of the other 2 on each side. It ruins the scene completely. It's a perfect example of why pan and scan for 4.3 aspect ratio is terrible.

I agree. That's what I meant by black space. Cropping is evil.

There even were 4:3 CRT TVs and CRT monitors that could display true 16:9 at correct aspect by reduced vertical drive so you got the full 480, 576 or 1080 lines resolution (NTSC, PAL, HDTV). I had a stored mode on my 1600 x 1200 DELL CRT monitor for 1920 x 1080 at reduced height and preset to switch PC GPU from 1600 x 1200 to 1920 x 1080 for HDTV from satellite card or USB DVB-T stick. (Ireland has animorphic 1080 line HD on DVB-T unlike UK which uses DVB-T2 for that.)

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It sounds like your PDF are image based.

No, my PDFs are basically text only except for the occasional image.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It sounds like your PDF are image based.

Not necessarily. If you set the page size for your PDF output to the size of the ereader screen or as close as you can get, you can get a text based PDF that fits your ereader screen without needing zooming, panning, etc.

My Nikon camera manual PDF is formatted for a 4.14 x 5.83 inch which is close to an A6's 105 mm x 148 mm (4.13 in. x 5.83 in.) paper size and fits my Libra and Sage screens quite well.

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I'd much rather have pillar boxed or letter boxed, and be able to see the scene the way it was filmed.

There is a scene in the movie Desk Set, with the 3 main characters at a small dining table. When cropped, you only see the center character, and the hands of the other 2 on each side. It ruins the scene completely. It's a perfect example of why pan and scan for 4.3 aspect ratio is terrible.

There are exceptions to this. Kubrick shot many of his later films so that they would work on TV screens as well. A version of Full Metal Jacket shows more in 4:3 format. I actually think that it shows too much. The later part of the movie works better cropped, as action and framing is constrained to a narrow screen. A modern example are imax versions of Dune movies. They also showed more at top and bottom in squarer format.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not necessarily. If you set the page size for your PDF output to the size of the ereader screen or as close as you can get, you can get a text based PDF that fits your ereader screen without needing zooming, panning, etc.

My Nikon camera manual PDF is formatted for a 4.14 x 5.83 inch which is close to an A6's 105 mm x 148 mm (4.13 in. x 5.83 in.) paper size and fits my Libra and Sage screens quite well.

That's what I do with my PDF ebooks. I measure my ereader screen (3.5 inches by 4.75 inches for my Nook Glowlight 4) and set that as the page size for my ebook with 0.1 inch margins. Then I choose a typeface size that is comfortable to read, either 13 point or 14 point for the main body. Then a few other decisions (such as ragged right or justified, first line indent for each paragraph or 12 points of space after each paragraph). I've already made those decisions, so it just a matter of dropping the text into it and making minor adjustments.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

That's what I do with my PDF ebooks. I measure my ereader screen (3.5 inches by 4.75 inches for my Nook Glowlight 4) and set that as the page size for my ebook with 0.1 inch margins. Then I choose a typeface size that is comfortable to read, .

Why make PDFs if you have the source?
PDFs are for print.

[pdurrant]

My Kindle Oasis 10th Gen 4G WAN + WiFi seems to only be able to connect over WiFi. I've only really found out today, when I knew I was in a good signal area away from my own Wifi. Just outside the return window. I'll see what the vendor says.

[Renate]

A general rant: In days gone by if you hit a "stupid key" on your PC, the beep would be immediate. Now that everything has fancy 23 channel audio on it, when you hit a "stupid key" your computer says, "Let's prepare to make sound! Heat up those boilers! Get those PLLs revved up. Are we ready yet, team? Play that sound, the one I like with the slow attack. Ok, we did it! Stand down." Animations and delays are the way manufacturers tell you that they hate you.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Why make PDFs if you have the source?
PDFs are for print.

They want a layout where text and graphics are in a fixed alignment?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

They want a layout where text and graphics are in a fixed alignment?

Not a true ebook if it doesn't reflow.
People need to accept that's not viable on ebooks that might be read on small screens.
Most ebooks are read on apps on phones.

They need to either write an app, or a sensible size PDF for large tablets, unless you are designing postage stamps.

It's also really annoying to read the fine print of a supposed "Kindle" title by an author you know and discover it's a comic book derived from it and it's essentially garbage on eink or a phone. Usually also no D&T. Sometimes not available for real Kindles at all. Amazon have messed up Kindle branding. It should be for real reflowable ebooks only. Print replica and Comics should use two other brands.

They are not the only idiots messing up the concept of an ebook.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by DNSB

They want a layout where text and graphics are in a fixed alignment?

That's why I use PDF to make my own ebooks. I've got some commercially released EPUB ebooks and the formatting is lacking. Among the issues: excessing white space (sometimes as much as four lines, one item, and then another four lines), two blank lines between the paragraphs, widows and/or orphans, and inconsistent page numbering (I have to do three actual page turns to advance the page number by 1).

An advantage of PDF is that the page numbers are consistent. If the Table of Contents (ToC) shows a chapter begins on page 101, that's where it begins. Although I could make tappable chapters in the ToC, in the past it was easier just to insert the page number for each chapter in a ToC, and then enter the page number to go to a chapter. With my newest ereader (Nook Glowlight 4) that with some PDF ebooks it appears that it automatically figures out where the Chapters are and shows them in the Contents List, but I haven't figured out how it detects the chapters.

Added: I just discovered that if I insert a ToC (using Chapter Title style for the chapter headings) the Nook Glowlight 4 automatically makes the chapters in the ToC clickable. A pleasant surprise.