TechKinetic recently introduced its proprietary TVaT Variable Aspect Technology, which may be able to solve problems with wide- (16:9) and narrow- (4:3) format media distribution and display compatibility. The technology provides optimally framed images on either of the existing consumer format displays, regardless of the original format.
According to the company, the digital television community will be able to use it to provide several improvements:
* Consumers receive optimized video (no distortion or cut-off heads)
* Content creators will have more creative freedom
* Content providers can reduce bandwidth/storage requirements by 50 percent
TechKinetic says television manufacturers currently rely on aspect conversion techniques, which create some problems. Letter-box conversions provide a complete representation of the original image frame, but can decrease the size of the image and leaves black bars on the sides of the screen. Edge-cutting type systems provide full screen images by cutting one third of an image from the left and right edges. Image stretching expands a frame to fill a display screen, but may result in distortion. To avoid reductions in image quality, content providers often distribute programs in the wide and narrow formats, which add expense to distribution.
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