Ant wrote:
On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 09:49:35 GMT, Roger Wilmut
wrote:

This is for the benefit of people with 4x3 televisions who have set
their box to fill the TV screenand cut off the sides of the picture
(as opposed to letterbox with the whole picture with black bands top
and bottom, which a lot of people don't like). Since the full-screen
option would clip some of the titles Sky run the opening in reduced
size with a frame all round. They will also do this if there are
mid-film captions which would be clipped. For people with a
widescreen TV it's irritating. interestingly, the BBC don't bother
to do this - people using full 4x3 screen just have to put up with
it.

Nothing the BBC makes in widescreen is 4:3 safe anyway - you will
always have graphics and captions going off the edges of the screen if
you watch in fullscreen mode.

This simply isn't the case - almost everything the BBC makes is 4:3 graphics
safe (though the action may not be). It is quite a tight 4:3 safe - but in
4:3 full-screen mode only TVs with ludicrous amounts of overscan (aka cut
off) should bits of gfx.

Mistakes are always going to be made - but the majority of 16:9 stuff on the
BBC especially the National News, News 24 etc. is 4:3 graphics safe.

Steve

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 13:44:49 -0000, "Stephen Neal"
wrote:

Mistakes are always going to be made - but the majority of 16:9 stuff on the
BBC especially the National News, News 24 etc. is 4:3 graphics safe.

The new look for News 24 is certainly much better than it used to be.
It looks fine in 4:3, unlike previously.

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 13:42:48 -0000, "Stephen Neal"
wrote:

All Sky - and most Freeview - digital TV receivers are delivered set-up for
4:3 full-frame output (not 16:9 full frame or 16:9 letterbox in 4:3) If
they aren't aware of widescreen broadcasting - which they might not be then
the chances are they won't know to change to letterbox. So not deliberate -
just default....

I think a lot depends on the installer. On both occasions (indy for
digi, Sky for SK+), I was sent one with a brain, who selected 16:9 and
RGB without any prompting...

Charlie

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In article , {$usenet-spamdump$}
@mrtickle.demon.co.uk says...
Much more could be done to educate the wider general public about widescreen
and widescreen switching.

Therefore what should happen is that the continuity announcer should say
"this programme is in widescreen. To see the whole picture, go into
Services... describe how to change it briefly ... for more help, read
your manual/check Sky Active/ask a child" before the programme.

It seems the BBC can't say "Sky".

They always advertise their news channel on "Digital Satellite channel 507"
which is stupid.

Then again, the BBC think their BBCi service is equivalent in speed to a
Formula 1 racing car, so they clearly haven't heard of Ceefax.
--

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In article ,
says...
On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 13:44:49 -0000, "Stephen Neal"
wrote:

Mistakes are always going to be made - but the majority of 16:9 stuff on the
BBC especially the National News, News 24 etc. is 4:3 graphics safe.

The new look for News 24 is certainly much better than it used to be.
It looks fine in 4:3, unlike previously.

News 24 is terrible. I emailed them saying that while it was a good idea to
bring the channel name and clock together, they should've kept the clock the
same as it was before (which is still used on BBC Breakfast) and then kept the
name of "BBC NEWS 24" across the same width and in the same line, but just
placed above it.

What they've done is made is a huge red block, the same size when the BBC show
a trailer so when it's on all the time it's distracting, and placed 'BBC' over
the 'NEWS 24' so the font is bigger.

This means that when someone's interviewed and their name/occupation appears
next to it, the logo's a bigger height than the caption, so the logo doesn't
fit - it only fits when it's accompanied by "BREAKING NEWS" which is too
******* big itself.

The response from the BBC? Some bull**** about how public opinion and several
focus groups had led to people liking the new look and that the old look was
'dated'.

I'm increasingly leaning to those who think the BBC should be subsidised by
adverts so they too can feel the pinch and not waste millions on a pointless
"revamp".
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor), http://LeilaniWeb.co.uk (editor),
/* 961 DVDs, 271 games, 33 videos, 78 cinema films, 70 CDs, laserdiscs & news
/* identity, cold mountain, the last samurai, hitcher 2, stuck on you
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On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 17:01:20 -0000, Dom Robinson
wrote:

It seems the BBC can't say "Sky".

I think "won't" is more accurate. In the same way that they always
said 'Digital Terrestrial' instead of 'ONdigital'.

Oddly they seem to have no worries at all about name-checking
Freeview. Wonder why that is. :-)

Dom Robinson wrote:

It seems the BBC can't say "Sky".

They always advertise their news channel on "Digital Satellite channel 507"
which is stupid.

It isn't stupid at all. Why should they advertise "Sky" when the only
thing that BBC sat transmissions have to do with Sky is the EPG?

Astra2 does not belong to Sky.

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In article ,
says...
On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 17:01:20 -0000, Dom Robinson
wrote:

It seems the BBC can't say "Sky".

I think "won't" is more accurate. In the same way that they always
said 'Digital Terrestrial' instead of 'ONdigital'.


I thought it was "can't" for reasons of advertising, since there'll be plenty
of Joe Punters out there who won't equate "Digital Satellite" with "Sky".
--

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/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor), http://LeilaniWeb.co.uk (editor),
/* 962 DVDs, 272 games, 33 videos, 80 cinema films, 70 CDs, laserdiscs & news
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