Metropol

Sput wrote:Yes, because as we all know, HIGHER IS BETTER!

It goes all the way up to 11.

My mate has a 40" LCD screen watching Freeview. He has it set to 16:9, whatever the broadcast picture format. I've lost count trying to persuade him to change it to 'auto'.

He thinks he's missing something if 4:3 programmes on channels like Virgin1 aren't stretched to the full size of his new screen. He also questions why I am happy to have black bars down the side of my TV at home just to retain the correct ratio on the same programmes.

Each to their own

nwtv2003 wrote:Most people I know now seem to have their TV's set in the right picture mode, a friend of mine has Sky HD and it looks stunning, but obviously that's HD anyway and that it's only in 16:9.

My TV has the capability to stretch a 4:3 cutout to 16:9 stretchyvision, even in HD, so I'd wager that some have taken advantage of that option especially to ruin their viewing.

Then there's also the problem of HD subscribers watching HD in SD through their Scart leads, as explained in this quite interesting blog article which also has some tips on setting up your telly best for HD.

Gavin Scott wrote:Autosensing optimisation.

Trust me - it'll be the wave of the future.

Is that the thing where it senses black bars and squashes to suit? I was watching a TV with it the other day and it nearly drove me insane.

Pah, the old Sput family homestead telly of 1998 autosensed black bars and stretched to fit. I hope it's better than that!

timgraham wrote:

Gavin Scott wrote:Autosensing optimisation.

Trust me - it'll be the wave of the future.

Is that the thing where it senses black bars and squashes to suit? I was watching a TV with it the other day and it nearly drove me insane.

No, more like something that senses its own contract, brightness and saturation - and then adjusts itself accordingly.

They use similar systems on projectors where there is a camera pointing the same way as the lens, and it can detect what kind of image its throwing out.

The public can't be trusted with television.

Look at David Van Day.

Virgin, I've noticed, have a tendency to set their boxes more reliably than Sky. It's freeview boxes where the trouble lies however.

I wonder, as its so hard to get a new 4:3 TV these days, why the default is STILL 4:3 rather than 16:9. I've only came across a handful of boxes that actually ask on first boot what type of TV you have. It's infuriating.

Luckily I know my house should be OK as although all the freeview boxes were replaced in the last few months, I've spent the last 6 years drumming the concept of widescreen into my brother's head so he can do it correctly.

My TV makes me very angry; I just wish I was less poor so I could address it.
It's an LG widescreen going back a few years, and doesn't allow aspect switching with an RBG source so everything is perpetually 16:9 - apparently this is quite common on cheap TVs of a certain age :\

Thankfully my housemates don't seem to realise that everyone who appeared in a TV show before 2001 wasn't incredibly bloated.

I'm having a row in work at the moment. Actually I'm having a number of rows, but one in particular which is relevant to this thread.

"Creatives" are doing my head in by letterboxing trails. It has become endemic. Last week I transmitted four trails in a row, a mix of local and national, all of which were letterboxed in some random fashion, all differently, and all made by different producers.

They think it makes their output look cinematic.

Well I don't give a shit. Make your pictures the shape that televisions are. You aren't remaking The Godfather. It's self-indulgent ill-thought out arsiness.

I feel a letter to Ariel coming on.

marksi wrote:I'm having a row in work at the moment. Actually I'm having a number of rows, but one in particular which is relevant to this thread.

"Creatives" are doing my head in by letterboxing trails. It has become endemic. Last week I transmitted four trails in a row, a mix of local and national, all of which were letterboxed in some random fashion, all differently, and all made by different producers.

They think it makes their output look cinematic.

Well I don't give a shit. Make your pictures the shape that televisions are. You aren't remaking The Godfather. It's self-indulgent ill-thought out arsiness.

I feel a letter to Ariel coming on.

Oh gosh yes, there's nothing worse than seeing these kind of trails. I always think "who thought it would be a good idea to lop off a third of the picture just for effect".

Make sure you cc Charlie Brooker into that letter to Ariel. You know how he LOVES creatives.

Worse still - Euronews. They're doing their entire output in pretend 16:9. All they've done is cover the top and bottom of their output. I can see where they're not quite covering it in the full 4:3 frame when I turn the overscan off.