[mythtv-users] Is cable going widescreen?

Tom Dexter digitalaudiorock at gmail.com
Tue Aug 26 13:33:15 UTC 2008


On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 7:05 PM, Steve Peters - Priority Electronics
<steve at priorityelectronics.com> wrote:
>
>>As I understand it, the broadcasters use a variety of resolutions from
>>SD 720x480 4:3 to 1920x1080 16:9.  As not all programming is in one
>>format or another, the broadcast will be in the program's native
>>format.  The viewer will control whether screen stretching takes place
>>or vertical bars are present on an HD set.  Am I wrong?
>>
>>- Nate >>
>>
>>--
>
>
> My dad's setup is a 4:3 hd tv, and when he watches something old, like I
> Love Lucy on the Fox HD OTA channel, he has black bars above the image (as
> is normal to most of the hd shows), but also to the left and right of the
> image. Kinda sucks really. I never understood why they didn't just send the
> signal out in 4:3. Commercials on that channel often show up as the 16:9
> ratio and fill to the left and right.
>
> -Steve
>

I've always wondered why all the networks choose not to broadcast 4:3
shows in 4:3.  Instead, they broadcast their usual resolution (720p or
1080i) with black bars build into the signal to the left and right.
Perhaps they don't want to change resolutions during broadcasting or
something...maybe there's even a good reason for that.  I have a wide
screen TV, but there are still two annoyances about this:  First of
all,  the same show could be broadcast in SD and take up a tiny
fraction of recording space with the same quality.  Second of all, I
like using gray bars (to minimize potential burn-in on my RP CRT) and
they're basically choosing black for me.

For anyone with a 4:3 TV it really sucks, as you get black bars all
the way around when you could be filling the screen.

Good thing the majority of what I record these days in true HD.

Tom


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