BBC World News

I just watched the BBC World News and found that it changed to widescreen. It seems not as good as before.

(Edited by mrjw68 at 6:12 pm on Feb. 1, 2002)

Am not able to get BBC World anymore, but maybe it's a mistake?
I remember they showed Top Gear a couple of times in full 16:9 for no apparent reason before going back to 14:9.

However, if it is a perment move, it'd probably look weird to a lot of people but also impress the heck out of a lot of the more technically-minded folk who haven't seen the news in 16:9 before.

Any chance of a screen-grab to see what it's like?

The news bulletins on BBC World have been produced in widescreen since late 1998/early 1999,, when they moved into News 24s old studio. They moved to widescreen 16:9 production, as all of BBC News in London was scheduled to move to this format, and indeed now has.

However BBC World presentation is 4:3 as the channel is broadcast in 4:3. Most countries are still using 4:3, Britain is one of the few countries with widespread digital TV transmissions in full 16:9 widescreen, and BBC World is not aimed at Britain (As a result widescreen material on BBC World is normally broadcast in 14:9 letterbox within a 4:3 frame)

OK, I'm a bit confused now - I assumed the original post meant it was broadcasting in a big 16:9 letterbox, since yeah it has been in 14:9 for ages now. So what is happening, then?

(Edited by Blake Connolly at 10:53 am on Feb. 1, 2002)

Ah - I had assumed that the viewer doesn't watch World that often and was surprised the news wasn't full frame 4:3.

If World News did go out in 16:9 deep letterbox rather than 14:9 shallow letterbox, then I suspect a mistake, fault or confusion.

Yes, I do like it. I noticed it yesterday with Mishal Hussain, it looked as if they were testing the thing.

There is no change - the Pres suite for BBC World is a 4x3 suite only - its not equiped for anything other than 4x3 material.

So any material that is orignally produced in widescreen must be re-formatted to its 4x3 safe version before it hits Presentation.

BBC World News is, and has been for several years, originated in 16x9 format (as was mentioned earlier in the thread), this output is then past through a format conversion to turn it in a 14x9 letterboxed style (ie with black bars top and bottom) before it gets to Pres - where it is handled as an incmoing 4x3 picture.

A pal in who knows about these things says there are currently no plans to change BBC World's tx feed into a widescreen one.

OK, well that clears it up, anyway..

I suppose it would cost too much money, but there's some places where a widescreen version of BBC World wouldn't be a bad idea. I know that in Japan a dubbed version of BBC World News is quite popular, and 16:9 (or HiVision as they call it) is growing very quickly as a broadcasting format over there. Most drama and entertainment is being made in widescreen, NHK is starting to move a fair bit of it's factual programming into the format and you'd rarely see a movie on Japanese TV without the big letterbox black bars.

I think Austrailia's getting into it a little bit too, right? No idea about Europe, it wasn't on German TV last time I got to look a few years ago, but it seems like the sort of thing they'd like.

Why is it that Britain has such a big lead in the widescreen field anyway? Why did the BBC decide to make such a committment to it?

I'm glad they did though.

I think the BBC decided it was all or nothing - especially as the premium to move to 16:9 production is actually quite small. The availability of 16:9 kit sort of co-incided with 4:3/16:9 switchable kit becoming available. One of the big incentives was the increasing use of Super16 film in drama production - which is nearer 15:9 but can be cropped to 16:9...

The Beeb's almost universal move to 16:9 seems to have dragged ITV with it, and C4 were pretty into the format as they got quite a lot of money in the mid 90s to experiment with 16:9 and PAL+.... Even advertisers have followed suit - with all British adverts being delivered in 16:9 (with few exceptions)

The BBC moved into some form of widescreen programme making around 1992, didn't they? I remember one of the first programmes was The House of Elliot, because of the huge amounts of complaints Points of View got about the black bars. Sounds silly now, actually! The reason the BBC gave is that the programme was 'futureproof'. Which it is, as we now all know, except for the fact that I dunno why anyone would want to watch The House of Elliot!

I remember when Channel Four was trying to lead the way with PAL+, putting everything from Brookside & Fifteen to One to Channel Four Racing in what appeared to be maybe a 15:9 letterbox? I think even characters in Brookside got widescreen sets. Didn't work, though.

Well, I'm impressed with the way the BBC have handled widescreen anyway. (Apart from 14:9 broadcasts, but I'm in a minority there, and it's a small price to pay really).

I forgot about C4's early widescreen stuff. And what is PAL+? Does it involve completely new cameras?

(Edited by moss at 12:22 pm on Feb. 2, 2002)