BY MARTIN LEDUC. TORONTO, CANADA (CINEMA MINIMA) – YouTube has changed their default player to a 16:9 aspect ratio, and the site’s users have gotten uncharacteristically vocal about the damage this has done to their old 4:3 uploads. The YouTube blog typically receives under 100 comments per post, but in 2 days, over 1000 comments have been posted about the widescreen player. Among the criticism and praise for YouTube’s widescreen conversion, one message prevails: Uploaders want an option to display videos in 4:3.
Since YouTube has modified their site design to fit the new 16:9 player, an optional 4:3 player would require them to maintain two versions of their layout. Another option would be to try embedding a 320×240 viewer into a page designed for widescreen.
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Ogova OndegoNairobi-based full time worshipper at the shrine of arts and culture; writer specialising in issues related to children, youth, media, culture and development, with a bias towards african and children's cinema
Chris WinsomeChristopher Winsome is the Publisher of Cinema Minima for Movie MakersAustin Burbridge
Austin Burbridge is Editor-in-Chief of Cinema Minima. After successful careers in manufacturing and in technology, he founded Cinema Minima, Sustainable Cinema, and Far From Hollywood. A native of Texas, he learned cinéma vérité technique at Rice Media Center. At Brown he concentrated in Semiotics and in Art; he studied Art History at the University of Chicago. He lives in Los Angeles.Kietryn Zychal
Kietryn Zychal is a Correspondent for the New York Bureau of Cinema Minima. She has worked as a journalist in the American state of Pennsylvania. Prior to working as a journalist, Zychal was an actress. She toured several American states performing a one-woman show “Merely the Ravings of a Maniac,” that she wrote and produced. Her screenplay, “What Comes Next,” is a dark comedy about the difficulty of being married to a professional golfer. Zychal is writing a TV pilot called “Eco-Hookers.” She was educated at Lehigh University and studied abroad in England and Switzerland.Suddhasatya Ghosh
Suddhasatya Ghosh is based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India
