The big problem is that Sky engineers (at least the official ones over in my neck of the woods) will not set 4:3 TV's to 4:3 Letterbox when they install it. They probably assume that people will complain and play it safe. Obviously more savvy people will switch it to letterbox themselves, so it's fair enough i suppose.
Hmm could it be that CI hasn't gone digital yet (Freeview)?
The big problem is that Sky engineers (at least the official ones over in my neck of the woods) will not set 4:3 TV's to 4:3 Letterbox when they install it. They probably assume that people will complain and play it safe. Obviously more savvy people will switch it to letterbox themselves, so it's fair enough i suppose.
Hmm could it be that CI hasn't gone digital yet (Freeview)?
The big problem is that Sky engineers (at least the official ones over in my neck of the woods) will not set 4:3 TV's to 4:3 Letterbox when they install it. They probably assume that people will complain and play it safe. Obviously more savvy people will switch it to letterbox themselves, so it's fair enough i suppose.
Yes, and then these same good folk go out and buy a widescreen TV, don't understand that they have to change the settings on the box, and come and complain to me that widescreen is rubbish because everyone looks like they've spent 2 hours in a giant vice.
And aren't BBC regs (notwithstanding the N24 fiasco, where they didn't even bother to check the 16:9 safe areas, never mind the 4:3 safes) that all graphics must be 14:9?
No. The vast majority of BBC output is commissioned as native 16:9, protected to 14:9 for action and 4:3 for graphics.
The big problem is that Sky engineers (at least the official ones over in my neck of the woods) will not set 4:3 TV's to 4:3 Letterbox when they install it. They probably assume that people will complain and play it safe. Obviously more savvy people will switch it to letterbox themselves, so it's fair enough i suppose.
I think the real problem is that Sky boxes don't have a 14:9 option which is a much better compromise especially for portable 4:3 sets, on which a full 16:9 letterbox can look just that bit too small. Even the cheapest Freeview box has a 14:9 mode, so I'm surprised Sky has never introduced it, if only on newer boxes.
If all digital boxes had 14:9 as the default setting for non-widescreen TVs, safe areas could be extended accordingly and graphics wouldn't look so crammed in the middle.
None of this is as bad as certain digital channels showing a load of 14:9 (and sometimes 16:9) stuff in a 4:3 frame. Which looks ridiculous on a properly setup 16:9 TV. The UKTV and Discovery channels are particually guilty of this, but there's a lot more channels which do the same. All down to money, of course, sod the viewer.
None of this is as bad as certain digital channels showing a load of 14:9 (and sometimes 16:9) stuff in a 4:3 frame. Which looks ridiculous on a properly setup 16:9 TV. The UKTV and Discovery channels are particually guilty of this, but there's a lot more channels which do the same. All down to money, of course, sod the viewer.
Although that's really no different to what a still significant proportion of the viewing public see on nearly
all
channels on analogue off-air.
Even the cheapest Freeview box has a 14:9 mode,...
Not so. My sister got given the Worst Freeview Box Ever for Xmas (besides no 14:9, there's no favourites mode/ability to delete channels, no EPG past Now/Next, and it picks up fewer channels [no Mux D] off the same signal as another box I tried).
Even the cheapest Freeview box has a 14:9 mode,...
Not so. My sister got given the Worst Freeview Box Ever for Xmas (besides no 14:9, there's no favourites mode/ability to delete channels, no EPG past Now/Next, and it picks up fewer channels [no Mux D] off the same signal as another box I tried).
Well there's always an exception. Certainly the £25 box I got from Asda had 14:9 available (despite it otherwise being a pile of unreliable poo which I duly took back).
I've made the argument in favour of sticking with 4:3 countless times, don't really feel the need to make it again.
So, accepting that it's here, one thing I don't quite get is that the only move to widescreen is the picture itself (stick with me). To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a single STB of any kind, DVD Player/Recorder or indeed any other AV product on the market which doesn't still have 4:3 software.
Even the Sky HD box, which will *never* be connected to a 4:3 set for it's intended use, still doesn't have 16:9 software, just the same old 4:3 stuff that's remained basically unchanged since 1998.
Granted, you quickly get used to an OSD being squashed (if many people even notice in the first place), but for interactive applications it's annoying - Sky News has been widescreen for almost 2 years now, yet moving over to active still knocks back to a 4:3 service because that's all the box is capable of displaying.
Surely Sky could start rolling out a software update now, and with the rate that software on Freeview boxes change, surely one developer by now would have had the foresight to consider that when the box is set for 16:9 mode that the software should change to 16:9 aswell? Think of the extra space that could be used for EPG listings.
Yet seemingly it just isn't worth thinking about., which I find bizarre considering the amount of hype (sorry, promotion) which has gone into switching to widescreen.
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None of this is as bad as certain digital channels showing a load of 14:9 (and sometimes 16:9) stuff in a 4:3 frame. Which looks ridiculous on a properly setup 16:9 TV. The UKTV and Discovery channels are particually guilty of this, but there's a lot more channels which do the same. All down to money, of course, sod the viewer.
In fairness, just because a programme was made in 16:9, it doesn't necessarily mean that the broadcaster has a 16:9 source. A lot of widescreen programmes on UKTV and Discovery are supplied to them as 14:9 letterbox in a 4:3 frame, even if the channels switched to widescreen transmission the only way to change material they have in that format would be to buy new copies, and it's an expensive business when you consider how much footage is involved.
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I think the real problem is that Sky boxes don't have a 14:9 option which is a much better compromise especially for portable 4:3 sets, on which a full 16:9 letterbox can look just that bit too small. Even the cheapest Freeview box has a 14:9 mode, so I'm surprised Sky has never introduced it, if only on newer boxes.
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I'm sure the reason only 16:9 and 4:3 was offered on early boxes (and still is on Sky) is to make sure people with 4:3 TVs were forced to change; it doesn't take long with a 4:3 TV to realise that widescreen programming looks awful in both modes - you either get a picture filling the screen but not framed for it, or a small picture using barely over half the lines of the TV and so lacking resolution. The 14:9 on my PVR does me fine, which isn't really making me feel the need to change my TV.
The big problem is that Sky engineers (at least the official ones over in my neck of the woods) will not set 4:3 TV's to 4:3 Letterbox when they install it. They probably assume that people will complain and play it safe. Obviously more savvy people will switch it to letterbox themselves, so it's fair enough i suppose.
Around here, it's Sky policy to set it to 4:3 Letterbox.
I find a lot of channels and producers now ignore the 4:3 safe area, working to 14:9 safe instead (with the odd advert and some American shows now using full 16:9).
