I see what's going on. No need to flip out.
I could be mean and say the problem is your TV and it's showing TOO MUCH real estate and you're just freaking out over minor things. The problem is a lack of standardization.
Before flat, digital TVs went mainstream most TV up until then barely allowed you to see the central 640x480 pixels of the 720x480 NTSC canvas -- the top/bottom & sides of the screen were covered by the TV casing, especially the bottom. This came in handy to cover up the noisy crud video information at the bottom of VCR tape footage.
Fast forward to the present, and you see TVs are treated more like PC monitors and we have better-quality video sources w/out crap on the edge of the canvas, so it's OK to present more, if not the entire 720x480 canvas (704x480 is still the most we typically see in a 4:3 display setting)
GameCube and Wii games typically process at 640 pixels wide (4:3 fullscreen). However, Nintendo has a habit of stretching that a little bit wider (using the console's video scaler) to occupy 660 pixels or more. Nintendo probably does this in case someone has a TV that shows much more than the STANDARD 640 pixels. BUT, everything meant to be seen in the game is adequately spaced to fit within the standard 640 -- GUI, life meters, stats, maps, etc. How much maximum screen space to take up is the choice of the developer.
RE4:Wii displays at 640 pixels wide during 16:9 anamorphic widescreen mode. A widescreen TV will stretch it to cover about 852 pixels wide (ultimately, the relative stretched width is determined by the manufacturer). This is just where it should be, and is the base spec for standard-def widescreen
TP:Wii displays at 686 pixels wide during 16:9 anamorphic widescreen. Stretched, it comes out to about 914+ pixels wide -- more real estate than some TVs will show. BUT, all the important info still fits within 852 pixels.
I suspect Caliban's TV is showing too many pixels or isn't stretching the games enough (same result). If TP is supposed to display at "true widescreen," then Link's hearts and on-screen indicators would be VERY close to the side edges of the TV screen -- but I don't think that's the case, and I believe Caliban actually sees a noticeable amount of unused game space between the indicators and edges.
RE4:Wii does stretch to true widescreen resolution, that is, it's the minimum rez that practically all widescreen TVs (even before HDTV) are guaranteed to display. If the TV barely fits Leon's name in the lower right corner of the screen, it's compliant. Anything more is dead space.
TP:Wii is just overachieving, and i'm sure there's quite a few people who aren't fortunate enough to see the extra 40-something pixels on the sides of their widescreen screens.
In conclusion, Caliban's TV is like many modern TVs: they show a few more pixels than necessary. More importantly, I noticed Caliban's TV ISN'T BLACK, more like a silver or grey or maybe white, so NO WONDER the black bars are painfully noticeable. They stick out like 12-in sausages on a caesar salad, causing Caliban to overreact. In the end, it's not a big deal.
I can get thin black bars to show up on my parent's rear-projection TV in Super Smash Bros. Melee. On my humble 27" Sony CRT, only about 636 of 640 pixels are viewable in RE4 -- i never see the true edges of the picture.
Topic: Resident Evil 4 Wiimake on Gamestop's database (Read 59888 times)
