16:9

[ralfyguy]

Is there any programs in 16:9 if you have SD and not HD?

 

[Sharper]

No. All SD is by definition the old "standard" aspect ratio of 4:3.

 

[philhu]

No. All SD is by definition the old "standard" aspect ratio of 4:3.

Well not completely true

AMS showed at least one movie with anamorphic compression. An old 50's movie, if I recall, a few months ago

I played with it and my mits 62" dlp in stretch mode, restored it to widescreen sd

Was kind of cool!

 

[goaliebob99]

there are movies shown in wide screen format on a 4:3 picture.. but other than that no... not that im aware of

 

[who_the]

PBS shows quite a bit widescreen 16:9 SD. Motorweek comes immediately to mind; a show that is shown widescreen on PBS and with top and bottom black bars on the Speed Channel.

Fox also broadcasts baseball and some football games in 16:9 SD.

However, these widescreen SD broadcasts are only shown on HD channels that upconvert the lower-resolution content. I believe traditional SD channels broadcast only in 4:3.

 

[ralfyguy]

I don't understand what's the problem. Technically it's not impossible.

 

[Liquidforce88]

Well DVD's come to mind.

 

[Jordan420]

I've seen quite a few on BBC

 

[ralfyguy]

So why does E* not go ahead and let it go 16:9 for SD? Is it because less people would go for HD?

 

[jergenf]

There are some digital OTA stations that send 480p widescreen. Example in my area is Fox, ABC and PBS (PBS-HD). Sometimes it's hard to tell because they offen show programs in 4:3 and put up sidebars (that's the station doing it not your TV). Also many DVDs are available in widescreen format for those with 16:9 displays.

Another method is sometimes 4:3 only stations will show a movie in letterbox mode. Either your receiver or TV may have "Zoom mode" which allows you to fill the screen with minimum loss.

 

[goaliebob99]

So why does E* not go ahead and let it go 16:9 for SD? Is it because less people would go for HD?

Most people have 4:3 sd screens and thats most likely why.

 

[jergenf]

So why does E* not go ahead and let it go 16:9 for SD? Is it because less people would go for HD?

Yes, if they were to have SD wide as the norm the most people with 4:3 sets would see the image vertically stretched. They could always add a letterbox feature (that shrinks the image vertically for standard SD boxes) but I doubt that existing boxes would be able to do that through software updates.

Personally I'm hoping they will consider that for the movie channels as all movie were originally shot in widescreen. The problem is most movies have been edited to fit regular TVs by the movie companies. So until widescreen becomes main stream most contents will remain in 4:3.

The easiest way of accomplishing that is to present most movies in letterbox and those of us that have HD receivers use use Zoom mode to fill our screens. This way both are happy except some people with 4:3 screens may still complain about the upper/lower borders.

 

[ralfyguy]

Maybe in the future they will change that, with more people getting 16:9 sets. It's true about the 4:3 people would have to watch letterboxed, but they did for years and years on some shows. But there's also more and more people with 16:9 sets that have bars on the sides then, same thing. I have to put my TV on panorama mode to fill the screen. It's not bad, but looks a little stretched. And the HD locals on my voOm is nice, but they switch back 4:3 for the commercials and news. That's kinda annoying, because the panorama function of the TV is greyed out due to the DVI hook up to the vooOm. I can't change the mode. The vooOm options don't change anything either. It just stays the way it is.

 

[Jordan420]

Is there any programs in 16:9 if you have SD and not HD?

I forgot the most obvious one, NBC shows ER in letterbox format in SD

 

[ralfyguy]

I forgot the most obvious one, NBC shows ER in letterbox format in SD

So this would be real 16:9 without stretching like on HD?

 

[goaliebob99]

yes it would

 

[dfergie]

Medium I think is letterbox also... (I watch HD version)