Samsung has just released a new TV that can orientate vertically to allow millennial mobile phone users to watch their videos the (cough) right way up.

See https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/29/18522287/samsung-sero-vertical-tv-price-release-date-millennials

Price is about $1600USD and units will go on sale in Korea.

Andrew

If it’s anything like the Samsung 3D TV I bought it will be self limiting. The motherboard failed at 3 months (taking all the recordings it had made on an external HD with it due to the encryption) and the screen a week after the warranty expired. Can’t think of a more appropriate manufacturer to support the cause of vertical video.

I note the Sky News iOS app now uses a square format, probably because of so much UGC inappropriately acquired in vertical orientation.

Interesting. Probably is needed at some point, the youth seem to spend so much time on their phones. I wonder if some even watch a TV all that much.

My daughter and son in law are in their mid 30's and spend plenty of time watching TV, also using a laptop in landscape mode. But their phones (and iPads to a lesser extent) are their primary form of connectivity, and they shoot virtually all video in portrait mode.

I really don't have a problem with this at all. Their composition is generally quite good and the vertical format works well in many cases. Aside from that, it's just easier to hold the phone in portrait orientation.

Remember the old days here at DVinfo? People would get into very heated debates about 4:3 vs 16:9. ;-)

If humans were meant to view things vertically, our eyes would be situated one above the other...just saying.

If humans were meant to view things vertically, our eyes would be situated one above the other...just saying.

Exactly:

Vertical Video Syndrome (Clean Version) - YouTube

-- peer

It's obvious that 'vertical video' is just too narrow to be of use.

16:9 on the other hand is what we've always been doing with our central content but with some extra stuff at the sides. The world is finally trimming off these superfluous extra bits and coming back to 4:3 video on social media. It's the reality test for being effective.

Andrew

Just to add that the vertical screen is used for advertising displays at various locations and on the screens at live events. However, for other forms it's pretty limiting.as a video aspect ratio, 4 x 3 makes more sense.

as a video aspect ratio, 4 x 3 makes more sense.

Until you want to watch a 2.35:1 film, which looks like a band-aid across the middle of the screen. This looks really bad on an iPad, for example.

You need a big screen for scope films, either that or hold the iPad 6 inches in front of your face.

It's obvious that 'vertical video' is just too narrow to be of use.

The vertical video "syndrome" is just a fad that's derived from laziness/convenience since people can shoot phone videos with only one hand. Simple as that.

-- peer

I do wonder if the necessary use of vertical video in TV news stories (eg the only footage of a crash or explosion) somehow legitimises it as a type of video. On the other hand it's one of those things that can scream 'amateur' when compared to professional work.

Andrew

Seems someone is marketing a vertical TV.

https://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/6346-are-we-really-ready-for-a-vertical-tv

Isn't that the same product that this thread was originally about? ;-)

Remember, back in the day, when "vertical video" was a "real thing" for computers? We thought it was so cool to see a letter sized page in portrait mode. And it was also cutting-edge that it had a white background like a sheet of paper. Maybe Xerox started this, and Apple jumped on board with several companies making vertical screens. Then there were screens that could rotate between portrait and landscape view. That was long before anyone had a smart phone.

I don't shoot vertical video and probably never will, but it doesn't bother me that it exists. It's funny how this seems to really offend some of you guys. If you think of video as art, then why shouldn't the artist have the freedom to choose the canvas size they want? Or do you think that Rembrandt shouldn't have painted portraits?

So it seems.

Vertical screens are seen in 2001 for the iPad type screens used on the Discovery.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/did-stanley-kubrick-invent-ipad

I'm not sure that Kubrick invented the tablet screens, he had good designers working on that film.

There is a film festival for vertical format videos.

Slim Cinema (http://www.slimcinema.co/)

Apple just introduced the Pro Display XDR for $5000. You can use it in portrait mode if you buy the optional $1000 stand. :-)

https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/

My life is incomplete without one!:-)

Perfect for watching the vertical videos you shoot on your iPhone!

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. You can shoot into the wrong end of the microphone, or turn the speakers towards the wall - but we don't do that either, unless you really want to make a point!

Seriously though, I shoot video for live screens, and these are often vertical format, either side of the stage, and throwing away so much of my frame annoys me.

It works for stand up comedians in arenas, the downside is that (unless using UHD cameras) the resolution is less than 720p.

A standard gag for stand ups is to pick someone in the front rows looking at the screen to one side and shouts at them that he's standing in front of them.

Some further enlightenment from a news story that went to air over here.

20190603 - Seven News - vertical TV - YouTube

Andrew