With ever-increasing frequency, footage from mobile devices turns up on the telly. This is displayed in widescreen landscape format, meaning that the vertical and horizontal resolution and screen size of the video can be compromised, and they clearly have no idea what to do with the side bars.

This can be remedied by having a portrait format television channel, broadcast so as to appear at right angles to the usual display. Simply take the screen and roll it through ninety degrees.

Suitable for news and current affairs programmes with a lot of viewer content, but also for displaying shots of documents and paper publications more clearly, and of course actual portraits.

I'm given to consider the possibilities afforded by portrait format and how having landscape since the beginning of cinema might have influenced stage and mind sets.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 08 2017

Auto-rotating digital photo frame, 2.4" version https://hackaday.co...-image-orientation/
Mentioned in my anno [notexactly, Apr 09 2017]

Auto-rotating digital photo frame, 27" version http://hackaday.com...of-vertical-images/
Mentioned in my anno [notexactly, Apr 09 2017]

Next up: Video monitors that automatically rotate 90 degrees as required depending on the input.

Or just make them square, I suppose.
-- smendler, Apr 08 2017


Good point, that could be done.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 08 2017


//Or just make them square, I suppose.//

"Christ! I've never been on Ryanair flight that's had to land on such a short runway!"

"Yes, but just look at how wide it is."
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 08 2017


I dimly recall an early computer monitor (Apple Lisa?) with auto portrait/landscape switching when the screen was manually rotated.

Nowadays, most smart phones have a rotation sensor and one can watch TV / videos in either orientation.
-- csea, Apr 08 2017


You may be thinking of the Xerox Alto or one of its successors. Oddly, the metaphor of an A4 sheet of paper in portrait orientation died quickly but the other principles of the GUI survived.

When we see a landscape format we think of, well, landscapes and stages. Portraits make us think of portraits of course, so maybe a more selfie-oriented narcissistic channel would emerge, but I hope not. I would prefer a culture of looking at the stars. I just wonder, that's all.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 09 2017


So they did in fact incorporate that aspect of the Alto into their design in the end anyway? Interesting.
-- nineteenthly, Apr 09 2017


// Next up: Video monitors that automatically rotate 90 degrees as required depending on the input. //

This has been baked a couple of times (in 2012 and 2016) for photo frames, so adapting it to TV wouldn't be too hard: [links]
-- notexactly, Apr 09 2017



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