Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

I do find it strange that widescreen TV broadcasts, DVD releases and
electronic equipment haven't been standardized to one aspect ratio.
Seems a balls up to me!

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

HS Crow wrote:

I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

16:9 is not the only widescreen format used for films. Hence many DVDs
that present the movie in its original cinematic format may be "wider"
than 16:9. However. when shown on freeview they will be pan & scanned or
cropped into the 16:9 format.

I do find it strange that widescreen TV broadcasts, DVD releases and
electronic equipment haven't been standardized to one aspect ratio.
Seems a balls up to me!

Just down to the choice of the director and producer of the film.
Different aspect ratios suit different types of production.


--
Cheers,

John.

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Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

"HS Crow" wrote in message
...
I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

If you set the TV to 4:3, you must be getting an incorrectly distorted
image. Broadcasters settled on 16:9 (1.85:1) some years ago as a
compromise, and to view these images correctly, you need to set your TV type
to 16:9, whereupon the picture will (correctly) fill the widescreen TV
display completely.

A DVD movie, unless 1.85:1, will usually appear letterboxed, as cinemascope
is even wider. This is normal. Broadcasters rarely (but sometimes!) conform
with this, and offer most movies in "TV Widescreen" - 16:9, 1.85:1, which
will again fill the screen totally.


I do find it strange that widescreen TV broadcasts, DVD releases and
electronic equipment haven't been standardized to one aspect ratio.
Seems a balls up to me!

Goes back years. Cinemascope, 2.35:1 or sometimes 2.40:1, was developed
yonks ago to suit and impress cinema audiences. The old "Academy" sized 4:3
picture used to be the same in early cinema and was adopted by TV
broadcasters early on.

When TV finally wanted to go "widescreen", making sets wide enough for
full-screen cinemascope, was considered excessive. A compromise size was
settled on that allowed a worthwhile increase in TV broadcast picture area
and something acceptable for cinemascope films. So the DVD industry is
accustomed to placing 2:35.1 movies anamorphically within a 16:9 frame,
while TV simply fills the 16:9 screen completely. In a way, you could say
that there IS standardisation!




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Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

In article ,
HS Crow wrote:
I do find it strange that widescreen TV broadcasts, DVD releases and
electronic equipment haven't been standardized to one aspect ratio.
Seems a balls up to me!

TV *has* standardised to two aspect ratios (well, three, really). Films,
not.

--
*For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 19:30:45 GMT, HS Crow wrote:

I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

I do find it strange that widescreen TV broadcasts, DVD releases and
electronic equipment haven't been standardized to one aspect ratio.
Seems a balls up to me!

The "widescreen" standard *is* 16:9 when it comes to TV broadcasts.
What you have to bear in mind however, is that CRT televisions always
have a bit of "overscan" (where the visible picture actually extends
beyond the edges of the tube). With a letterboxed image you're seeing
the full height but not quite the full width, which is why it appears
more like 16:10.

The reason that pictures from a DVD look wider, is that the two most
common "widescreen" standards in cinematography are either 1.85:1 or
2.35:1 - these are encoded into a 16:9 frame, so either 4% (1.85:1) or
24% (2.35:1) of this frame is left blank ("black bars").

Charlie

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Remove NO-SPOO-PLEASE from my email address to reply
Please send no unsolicited email or foodstuffs

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 23:04:44 +0100, "Ian" wrote:


"HS Crow" wrote in message
.. .
I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

If you set the TV to 4:3, you must be getting an incorrectly distorted
image. Broadcasters settled on 16:9 (1.85:1) some years ago as a
compromise, and to view these images correctly, you need to set your TV type
to 16:9, whereupon the picture will (correctly) fill the widescreen TV
display completely.

I don't think the OP has a widescreen TV...

Charlie

--
Remove NO-SPOO-PLEASE from my email address to reply
Please send no unsolicited email or foodstuffs

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

"HS Crow" wrote in message
...
I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

One issue to consider is how you would like the TV to behave when it is not
receiving a broadcast digital widescreen picture.
e.g. analogue transmissions and quite a number of digital transmissions. (e.g.
F1 on ITV) are 4:3

People tend not to like the black bars that you get when a 4:3 picture is
displayed pillar box stype, however if you want to see a complete non distorded
picture, that is what you have to put up with!

The widescreen TV I have, has a setting where it does auto switching, the
problem is that it always attempts to completely fill the screen. I can't set it
to switch between 4:3 pillar box and widescreen. PITA


Some TVs can remember different formats for (each) scart socket.

--

Michael Chare

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

"HS Crow" wrote in message
...
I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

I do find it strange that widescreen TV broadcasts, DVD releases and
electronic equipment haven't been standardized to one aspect ratio.
Seems a balls up to me!

I am not an expert in this field, but I believe that so-called widescreen
TVs are 16:9, whereas CinemaScope type films on DVD might easily be 2.3:1.

Remember that the film ratios came first, but these were not standardised as
it depended on the director and the film production company. Modern TVs are
a compromise between 4:3 and 2.33:1.


--
MESSAGE ENDS.
John Porcella

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
HS Crow wrote:

I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

16:9 is not the only widescreen format used for films.

I was not aware this was a format for cinema films! TV yes, but cinema...I
am not so sure.


--
MESSAGE ENDS.
John Porcella

Freeview widescreen - what aspect ratio is it, 16/10?
 

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 01:07:23 +0000 (UTC), "John Porcella"
wrote:


"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
HS Crow wrote:

I have a Humax PVR connected to a CRT TV via SCART. If I set the
Humax to TV=4/3, Output = 16/9, I get a letterboxed image as expected.
However, the image is not as widescreen as when playing DVDs. I
measured the image and it appears to be roughly 16/10. Is this
correct? My reason for asking is that I'm looking to buy a new
Freeview PVR and widescreen TV and I'm trying to discern if there are
any interoperability issues that I need to be aware of.

16:9 is not the only widescreen format used for films.

I was not aware this was a format for cinema films! TV yes, but cinema...I
am not so sure.

Cinema uses 1.85:1 & 2.35:1 as the most common formats. 1.85:1 is
very close to 16:9, but not exactly the same. That's what I was told
anyway. Generally, big Hollywood blockbuster used 2.35:1 (the widest
format) & your average brit-flick (eg: Notting Hill) would use 1.85:1.

Marky P.