History Main / VisualCompression

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence or ImpairmentShot). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos (Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion. Some channels will pre-stretch older materials as well. For example, some networks that air syndicated reruns of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', will stretch the image to widescreen before broadcast. If you have an older, non-widescreen TV, you'll notice they've hacked off the "F" and "S" in the show's logo during the introduction. [[UsefulNotes/LaserDisc Discovision]] released a version of Film/Jaws2 using this technique for a majority of the film.

Compare {{Letterbox}}, Open Matte, SplitScreen, WidescreenShot.

Contrast PanAndScan.

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos (Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion. Some channels will pre-stretch older materials as well. For example, some networks that air syndicated reruns of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', will stretch the image to widescreen before broadcast. If you have an older, non-widescreen TV, you'll notice they've hacked off the "F" and "S" in the show's logo during the introduction. [[UsefulNotes/LaserDisc Discovision]] released a version of Film/Jaws2 using this technique for a majority of the film.

Technically speaking, the anamorphic process is not used specifically to fit a widescreen image into a TV screen, but rather to fit a widescreen image into Academy ratio (4:3) film; then, when projecting, the same type of lens is used again to ''un''shrink the image, returning it to its original aspect ratio. (This process uses up the maximum amount of grains/pixels in transit.) Visual Compression occurs when a film is recorded using an anamorphic lens, but then projected using a ''normal'' lens, which does not undo the "squishing" of the image. Creator/{{IMAX}} Grand Theatre (GT) laser projectors [[InvertedTrope invert]] this process, stretching a 4096x2160 1.90:1 image 33% taller to 1.43:1 when showing 1.43:1 content on the giant screen.

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Compare {{Letterbox}}, OpenMatte, SplitScreen, WidescreenShot.

Compare {{Letterbox}}, SplitScreen, WidescreenShot.

Technically speaking, the anamorphic process is not used specifically to fit a widescreen image into a TV screen, but rather to fit a widescreen image into Academy ratio (4:3) film; then, when projecting, the same type of lens is used again to ''un''shrink the image, returning it to its original aspect ratio. (This process uses up the maximum amount of grains/pixels in transit.) Visual Compression occurs when a film is recorded using an anamorphic lens, but then projected using a ''normal'' lens, which does not undo the "squishing" of the image. Creator/{{IMAX}} Grand Theatre (GT) laser projectors [[InvertedTrope invert]] this process, stretching a 4096x2160 1.90:1 image 33% taller to 1.43:1 when showing content on the giant screen.

Technically speaking, the anamorphic process is not used specifically to fit a widescreen image into a TV screen, but rather to fit a widescreen image into Academy ratio (4:3) film; then, when projecting, the same type of lens is used again to ''un''shrink the image, returning it to its original aspect ratio. (This process uses up the maximum amount of grains/pixels in transit.) Visual Compression occurs when a film is recorded using an anamorphic lens, but then projected using a ''normal'' lens, which does not undo the "squishing" of the image.

Similarly, UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} uses a similar technique to encode content. Both 4:3 and 16:9 works have a resolution of 720x480, which is 3:2 in square pixels, seemingly chosen as a compromise between the two ratios. 4:3 content is squished to the correct shape, and 16:9 content is stretched. This allows widescreen content to be encoded with more resolution and smaller {{letterbox}}es.

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos (Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion. Some channels will pre-stretch older materials as well. For example, some networks that air syndicated reruns of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', will stretch the image to widescreen before broadcast. If you have an older, non-widescreen TV, you'll notice they've hacked off the "F" and "S" in the show's logo during the introduction. Discovision released a version of Film/Jaws2 using this technique for a majority of the film.

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos (Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion. Some channels will pre-stretch older materials as well. For example, some networks that air syndicated reruns of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', will stretch the image to widescreen before broadcast. If you have an older, non-widescreen TV, you'll notice they've hacked off the "F" and "S" in the show's logo during the introduction. Discovision released a version of Film/Jaws2 using this technique.

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos (Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion. Some channels will pre-stretch older materials as well. For example, some networks that air syndicated reruns of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', will stretch the image to widescreen before broadcast. If you have an older, non-widescreen TV, you'll notice they've hacked off the "F" and "S" in the show's logo during the introduction.

[[quoteright:267:Visual Compression in action. Note the ovoid shape of the sun.]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/compress.jpg
[[caption-width:267:Visual Compression in action. Note the ovoid shape of the sun.]]

Technically speaking, the anamorphic process is not used specifically to fit a widescreen image into a TV screen, but rather to fit a widescreen image into Academy ratio (4:3) film; then, when projecting, the same type of lens is used again to ''un''shrink the image, returning it to its original aspect ratio. (This proces uses up the maximum amount of grains/pixels in transit.) Visual Compression occurs when a film is recorded using an anamorphic lens, but then projected using a ''normal'' lens, which does not undo the "squishing" of the image.

This refers to a method of squeezing a [[AspectRatio widescreen]] movie onto a television screen. How is this accomplished? [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Exactly what we said]] -- the original frame is "squeezed", or visually compressed, horizontally until it fits, likely using an anamorphic lens (which works not unlike a FishEyeLens).

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos (Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion.

On the other hand, Visual Compression does noticeably distort the image, which can have a rather discombobulating effect on the viewer. For this reason, Visual Compression is almost never used for the entirety of a film, being restricted instead to brief uses such as credit sequences or just to create a weird look and feel (such as a DreamSequence). It does, though, turn up in shorter venues, for example in music videos ({{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Promise Of A New Day" spring to mind). Some widescreen TV sets also have the option of stretching non-widescreen material to fit the screen, in case their owners are lucky enough to not be able to notice the distortion.

Compare {{Letterbox}}; contrast PanAndScan. See also SplitScreen. \\

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