I just installed the new iTunes version and with great satisfaction I saw that all episodes of newer TV series are now in 720 format: 1280×720 at 24fps (I won’t say 720p, because “progressive” correlates to 60 fps). Anyways, so far, so good.

But while I was browsing the catalog, I saw that the older TV series, like ‘Star Trek: Voyager’, have been resized too, but in an unfortunate way. Now, all 4:3 shows are 1280×960 instead of a more standard definition resolution. This is a waste of cpu cycles (my 3 GHz PC struggles with it), a waste of bandwidth, and a waste of screen space for no good reason. I would have much preferred the older 4:3 videos to be something more normal, like 640×480 or something, or 800×600 if AppleTV can upscale them. But 1280×960 for some shows that were even shot on video instead of film? This resolution brings nothing, it requires more cpu speed than a real widescreen video, and given that these are 10-year old shows, it amounts to ridiculous requirements! I have a 1680×1050 monitor, and I still find these videos ridiculously big.

There have been a couple of good “Lost” theories as of late (1, 2), but this one seems to be the best. Of course, it doesn’t explain how the submarine was able to leave the island, or the flashbacks not being real is pushing the credibility of the show, but overall it’s pretty solid based on what we know after 3 seasons of “Lost”. The island being present in the river of space/time, Jacob being unfortunate and stuck between timelines, the ‘whispers’ being the characters themselves from another timeline etc, this theory has it all. Many noted that “Lost” is just Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” under disguise (and the Others are actually reading King’s books in several occasions).