Selecting an HDTV

Bruce Tomlin wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

I've seen it called "Panoramic". I hate it. I would much rather put 4:3
in pillarbox and get the right aspect ratio everywhere. Different people
like different things. I just hope a TV station/network never turns a 4:3
program into such a think in HD transmission as that would be hard to undo.

I have a secondary weather channel here (24-2 in Austin, TX) which is
being displayed in wide mode. Except that the original picture isnt, as
I can tell by switching my tuner to its rarely used "wide that ain't"
anamorphic display mode, and filling my 4:3 CRT with what is clearly the
correct aspect ratio. (Especially during the E/I dump right now.) I
don't have any tuners which tell the exact mode being sent, but I think
they could switch to the correct mode if they cared.

This is particularly annoying because all my local HD stations broadcast
4:3 content windowboxed and upconverted to their usual HD resolution, so
I often leave my tuner in zoom mode. This causes the weather subchannel
to get cropped at both sides. It's even more annoying on the bedroom
TVs, because I adjusted my living room TV for minimum overscan, so more
of the edges get cropped.

If the stream was sent as 4:3 SD, everyone's tuner could configurably do
the "right" thing depending on the aspect ratio of what it was connected
to. Right now there probably aren't a lot of 4:3 ATSC sets in actual
use, but with all the converter boxes out there, just wait until next
year.


I've witnessed the same shenanigans on my end, and when I do, I announce
my displeasure to the broadcaster, which generally ends with "Please
leave it alone."

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'