why do some channels not go full screen?

[kamaleon]

Hi there,

As i'm not used to havin' british telly, i must ask you lot a question:
why the heck do some english channels like itv, bbc, on football matches and other broadcasts, don't take the full screen, just a 4/3 square image on the middle? What crap...

 

[PaulR]

This usually happens on systems which have a 4:3 TV and the satellite receiver set up to output a letterbox picture on widescreen transmissions. On normal 4:3 transmissions you get a normal 4:3 picture and on 16:9 transmissions you get black bars top and bottom. So far, so good.

The problem arises on programmes such as football and other sports programmes that originate from a country that is still using 4:3 pictures as standard. When the pictures arive in the UK they are inserted into normal transmissions and, rather than continually switching between the 2 different screen formats in tha studio and overseas, they run in permanent 16:9 with a 4:3 picture in the middle.

The only thing you can do is to set your receiver to output a 4:3 picture and hope that things are better - if they aren't then tough luck.

I have come across channels which mistakenly leave the 16:9 identification tag in the transmission stream on 4:3 pictures and you get exactly the same effect. Einstein TV a few years ago was always doing it but most seem to have it sorted now.

 

[kamaleon]

That's exactly what happens, it's a 16/9 transmission with a 4/3 actual image inside.... what fckng crap!!!!!!! Yesterday during the uefa cup final, the whole match was in 4/3 on a tiny screen "inside" 16/9, but some of the cameras like the ones on the touchline, filming ie. Stevie Mclaren were 16/9 so it kept on switching...

I've actually got a 19" pc screen, with a ss2 and altdvb/prog/whatever, but what does it look like on a regular tv screen? is it the same bollox? I mean this was itv, but i've seen the same on bbc, etc....

btw, i did try to stretch the image to full screen, without success. These programs don't have a pan&scan function yet...

 

[Yorks]

Yep it's just as frustrating watching on the telly.
If I remember right (had a sleep since then), the match on ITV1 on my 32 wide screen was in 4:3. Black bands either side. As you probably know you can 'zoom' or magnify picture to fill the 16:9 frame but then you lose top and bottom of picture and can't see score displayed. You can move the zoomed picture down to display score but then lose a big chunk from the bottom of the screen. There is also a 'smart' function on most wide screens which stretches the sides of the 4:3 image to fill the screen but in my opinion it's like watching tv through a gold fish bowl!

It's quite interesting to note that M*ltivision and T*quilla braodcast the 16:9 image inside the 4:3 as you mention. If you zoom in on the tv it fits the screen perfectly. But the image degrades a little due to the magnification!'O'-red
While our friends at Digit*rk broadcast some films on Salon channels in full blown widescreen with no need to zoom in.2

Yorks

 

[kamaleon]

This is utter shite if i must say... can't they get their act together and make something watchable? I mean, what's the point in havin the whole game in 4/3 and then a few seconds of 16/9 when staring at steve mclaren and the 'boro bench... **** hell...

 

[PaulR]

Well it's not usually the fault of the Beeb or ITV but the foreign TV companies that haven't upgraded to widescreen TV yet. I think you're being a bit hard blaming them.

but

It's quite interesting to note that M*ltivision and T*quilla braodcast the 16:9 image inside the 4:3 as you mention. If you zoom in on the tv it fits the screen perfectly. But the image degrades a little due to the magnification!'O'-red
While our friends at Digit*rk broadcast some films on Salon channels in full blown widescreen with no need to zoom in.2

Yorks

are you saying that exactly the same shot in 4:3 on ITV1 was actually a proper 16:9 shot on M*ltivision or T*quilla? I find it hard to believe that ITV would then chop the sides off to make it into a 4:3 picture. Are you sure you're not confusing it with some 16:9 pictures from the ITV studio at the game? That would make more sense.

 

[kamaleon]

Hi Paul, maybe i am being a bit harsh,

otherwise i've seen this on some bbc, during the news? so are you shure it's got something to do with foreign tv's?

 

[PaulR]

The Beeb seems to be able to "improve" foreign 4:3 pictures so that they can chop a bit off the top and bottom and create an almost 16:9 picture - it usually has slight black bars on the left and right.

This is usually visible on my Widescreen TV, as you say, during the news with clips culled from foreign broadcasts. Also, sometimes football clips from $ly appear in this manner - possibly something to do with copyright?

I think the BBC is committed to widescreen and does everything possible to promote it where it can but at the end of the day they can only work with the signals they are given from overseas.

ITV is not as good as the Beeb (C4 is worse and Five worse still) but still has a good proportion of 16:9 signals.

 

[kamaleon]

I meant the images of the lady and mr presenter of the news, not the foreign footage... i'll check tomorrow

 

[Yorks]

@paulr - Sorry m8. I had gone off on one, and was talking about Taq*illa and Mul*ivision in general. They didn't actually show the footie. I was referring to their film broadcast formats.

Yorks.