When/why did conan go letterboxed?
 

Saw it last night after many months. So what's the dillio?

It started Tuesday. It is because the show is now broadcast in HD.


http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420239

I miss seeing the entire Conan. :(

His explination last night about the change from 4:3 to 16:9 and what they can do now with the new ratio was fucking brilliance.

I wish they did more shows like this...now they can use the entire frame rather than having to make everything 4:3 safe (which results in pretty much wasted space on each side of the HD broadcast). The problem with The Tonight Show is that the guest who has slid down the coach is half visible on the HD broadcast, and that guest is usually pretty uncomfortable with this...by letterboxing the SD production, they can frame for one ratio and eliminate this problem completely.

Its ashame that only NBC, UPN, and TheWB do this. J.J. Abrams intended for Lost to be show in letterbox, but ABC decided to pan and scan it for SD broadcast.