Most hotels these days have upgraded from old-style tube televisions to new technology flat-panel LCD widescreen televisions. The good intentions are there… but they haven’t quite figured out the widescreen part.
Pretty much every hotel we have stayed in with a flat-panel LCD widescreen television has the system permanently set to “make it wide”. I’m sure when the day comes that all television stations are broadcasting in high-definition wide-format 16x9 ratio the hoteliers will be patting themselves on the back, proud that they were first to jump on the widescreen bandwagon.
But that day isn’t here yet. All present-day non-HD television stations are still broadcasting in conventional 4x3 aspect ratio. So when they’re displayed in forced 16x9 mode, everything is stretched out horizontally. Everyone’s heads become football-shaped. Everyone’s bodies are unusually wide. They used to say “television adds ten pounds”… now they can say “widescreen television adds 33%”. That’s not flattering to anyone! Except perhaps (from what we’ve heard) on the Adult Entertainment stations - but even then only if the actor turns sideways.
So why is it that hotels don’t seem to have the ability to embrace modern technology without messing it up? At home even our 2007 (old by technology standards) Motorola DCT6200/1000 HD cable box can differentiate between a 4x3 broadcast and a 16x9 broadcast and deliver the correct content to our screen. Why can’t the hotels with newer equipment achieve the same?
The last place we stayed at had a nice Phillips 32HFL5860D/27 which according to the brochure supports “4:3, (and) 7 Widescreen Modes”. But the only control we have over the unit is through the LodgeNet remote control which does not provide a method of changing video modes!
Why are hotels spending the money on upgrades that they’re not allowing their guests to use? If all they wanted was to give guests a bigger-looking screen, there are much cheaper ways to do that…
