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US TV Widescreen

erm, widescreen? (May 2007)

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TP
Techy Peep Founding member
OK, the wanderer returns to TV forum from a long winter away from TVF.
I've moved to the US from the UK, got myself a 16:9 plasma, Direct TV satellite (SD, not HD)

My question is a very simple one.. do *any* US stations broadcast widescreen? I can't find any except for a few films which are "letterboxed" as they call it on the EPG
:-(
A former member
Well NBC News / Today Show is now in HD so is broadcast in Widecreen, although does it depend on the affaliate station weather they have changed their output style?

Some programmes are in widescreen, but most stations don't play it out in widescreen - i think.
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
So I guess to get 16:9 I need HD?

Geez, cant they at least broadcast 14:9 on SD? Hardly rocket science!

With the amount of widescreen sets being sold over here I'd have thought there's a huge audience who are losing out on programmes created *for* widescreen, such as Blue Planet which I saw on the local PBS and looked appauling 4:3 (having seen the original in 16:9 HD directly off the broadcast tape)

Maybe the US readers of TVF would like to start a campaign to get the main broadcasters to at least compromise with a 14:9 output on SD?
:-(
A former member
Well my friend assumed that his local station was Widescreen because he had a widescreen tv ! Shocked Shocked

If you go to msnbc.com , Today Show and into the Today Concert Series they have it in widescreen, incase you wondered what it would look like lol.
JO
Johnny83
We seem to be far ahead TV wise compared to the US, Widescreen has been over here for 5 years, Analogue switchoff is about to start with us possibly been one of the first, if not the first to be completely digital in the world.

Odd considering the US had colour long before us
TR
travisp
Ditto to the Aussie's and European countries, they've had widescreen for a good few years as well. Perhaps its the NTSC signal that is conflicting the widescreen?
MA
Markymark
Johnny83 posted:
We seem to be far ahead TV wise compared to the US, Widescreen has been over here for 5 years, Analogue switchoff is about to start with us possibly been one of the first, if not the first to be completely digital in the world.

Odd considering the US had colour long before us


We've had widescreen transmission here since 1994, if you count C4's PAL+ service. Anamorphic widescreen broadcasts came with D-Sat (aka Sky) in October 1998, almost 9 years ago.

However there is already an all digital country, The Netherlands, they switched off all analogue transmission last December.
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
Oh yeah, and for my ex colleagues in London (you know who you are hehe!) the opts for ad breaks in and out of live broadcasts need looking at over here... London break bumpers followed by American break bumpers mean the opt-in is ugly as sin! The programme is crashing back on air due to the extra local break bumpers being thrown in and using up the alloted break duration
JH
Jonathan H
Johnny83 posted:
We seem to be far ahead TV wise compared to the US, Widescreen has been over here for 5 years, Analogue switchoff is about to start with us possibly been one of the first, if not the first to be completely digital in the world.

You make that sound like it's a good thing!
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
Techy Peep posted:
Oh yeah, and for my ex colleagues in London (you know who you are hehe!) the opts for ad breaks in and out of live broadcasts need looking at over here... London break bumpers followed by American break bumpers mean the opt-in is ugly as sin! The programme is crashing back on air due to the extra local break bumpers being thrown in and using up the alloted break duration

OMG break bumpers all over the place just now (0817 NY time)... they used 2 secs of TOTH for the opt-in from break .. Eeek hehe

edit: 0822 used TOTH for 2 secs again and crashed into the tail of N9 opt-in titles

It looks really untidy indeed, and feels uncomfortable to view
JO
Johnny83
Markymark posted:
Johnny83 posted:
We seem to be far ahead TV wise compared to the US, Widescreen has been over here for 5 years, Analogue switchoff is about to start with us possibly been one of the first, if not the first to be completely digital in the world.

Odd considering the US had colour long before us


We've had widescreen transmission here since 1994, if you count C4's PAL+ service. Anamorphic widescreen broadcasts came with D-Sat (aka Sky) in October 1998, almost 9 years ago.

However there is already an all digital country, The Netherlands, they switched off all analogue transmission last December.


Ah someone has beaten us to it then. The Dutch kept that quiet
JO
Johnny83
Jonathan H posted:
Johnny83 posted:
We seem to be far ahead TV wise compared to the US, Widescreen has been over here for 5 years, Analogue switchoff is about to start with us possibly been one of the first, if not the first to be completely digital in the world.

You make that sound like it's a good thing!



What's wrong with us been ahead of anyone else, if anything it would be nice to be ahead of the Americans for a change technology wise

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