CNET Reader Doug Hagemeister asks:

Hello! I was watching a movie on Blu-ray the other day filmed in the 21:9 aspect ratio and I realized that it technically wasn’t “1080p” since about 1/4 of the screen was taken up by the horizontal black bars (called “letter boxing,” correct?). Anyway, I was just wondering how many pixels were being used on the TV. Thank you!

Ah, letterboxing, how I love you.

I don’t understand some people. Ok, a lot of people. Internet people, mostly. The type of people with the need to proselytize their views about meaningless crap.

You know, like what I do. Only, not paid.

These malcontents have a passion for posting vitriol wherever their sensibilities about good and bad companies/products/technologies are impugned.

To which I say, WTF?

Curious about the difference between active 3D and passive 3D? So was I. So I wrote this.

Nearly every LCD TV on the market has a problem: uniformity. Certain areas of the screen are going to be brighter than other areas. On dark scenes, this can be visible and sometimes distracting.

So what causes it? What can be done?

Contrast ratio is the most important aspect of a TV’s performance. More than any other single metric, a set’s contrast ratio will be the most noticeable difference between two TVs.

That is, if you could juxtapose them. Which you can’t. Or if you could compare their claimed specs. Which you can’t.

Understanding what contrast ratio is and how to judge it will help you determine the best TV for your dollar. But it’s a lot harder than it sounds.

There’s lots of money in cables. Your money.

Dozens of reputable and disreputable companies market HDMI cables, and many outright lie to consumers about the “advantages” of their product.

Worse, the profit potential of cables is so great, every retailer pushes high-end HDMI cables in the hopes of duping the buyer into spending tens, if not hundreds, of dollars more than necessary.

Here’s the deal: expensive HDMI cables offer no difference in picture quality over cheap HDMI cables. CNET has mentioned this before, but here’s the science of why.