Now, I thought I'd finally understood all of this aspect ratio garbage, but why is it that anything from BBC South ("BBC One South" branded idents, South Today, etc.) has thin black bars down the side on digital satellite? The Sky EPG has South Today tagged as 'Wide', so this baffles me. Also, why does cropped footage on the news (on all channels) have a black bar down one side of the screen but not the other?
Now, I thought I'd finally understood all of this aspect ratio garbage, but why is it that anything from BBC South ("BBC One South" branded idents, South Today, etc.) has thin black bars down the side on digital satellite? The Sky EPG has South Today tagged as 'Wide', so this baffles me. Also, why does cropped footage on the news (on all channels) have a black bar down one side of the screen but not the other?
It's because BBC South (and BBC South West, BBC West, BBC North West and BBC North East & Cumbria) don't have proper Widescreen facilties compared to other other regions, but they have to go out in Widescreen as the rest of BBC News is, so the picture is cropped unfortunately. Though the picture quality can be bad at times on BBC One North West, via Digital.
Now for the left black bar, it doesn't appear on my TV, but on my parents Widescreen TV you can alter the position of the picture and the left black bar is there.
Now, I thought I'd finally understood all of this aspect ratio garbage, but why is it that anything from BBC South ("BBC One South" branded idents, South Today, etc.) has thin black bars down the side on digital satellite? The Sky EPG has South Today tagged as 'Wide', so this baffles me. Also, why does cropped footage on the news (on all channels) have a black bar down one side of the screen but not the other?
The black bars down the sides are due to the picture being cropped to 14:9 rather than 16:9 so that not too much of the top and bottom of the shot is removed, this is supposed to reduce the problem of people's heads and captions being chopped off!
There is a timing issue with 14:9 material being shown on many 16:9 televisions.
On my television, and many others, the picture arrives a tiny bit early, so the black bar down the left hand side is either narrower than the one on the right, or doesn't appear at all.
Switching the satellite box to RGB transfer will considerably lessen the timing issue and is recommended by many people, but the downside is that the satellite picture will then appear to have far less contrast than analogue channels on the same set.
I think I actually asked the wrong questions there. Allow me to rephrase. I'm used to 14:9 material having thinner black bars down either side, but the strange thing about the BBC South material is that if I switch the TV to widescreen stretchy mode (which I know is naughty), there are still thin black bars down either side, as if the TV wasn't quite able to stretch it all the way. The TV has no problems with stretching normal 14:9 material (from analogue, etc) all the way, so what's different about BBC South?
And as for the cropped material on the news, etcetera, what confuses me there is that the single black bar is sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, and sometimes on both sides (albeit extremely thin). Is this down to different cropping methods or something?
what confuses me there is that the single black bar is sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, and sometimes on both sides (albeit extremely thin). Is this down to different cropping methods or something?
I THINK it's down to timing again, Mr Moggy; whether the picture arrives on time, a tiny bit early (to the left) or a tiny bit late (to the right).
You really need somebody like noggin, who might blind you with science <grin>, but WILL know the proper answer.
what confuses me there is that the single black bar is sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, and sometimes on both sides (albeit extremely thin). Is this down to different cropping methods or something?
I THINK it's down to timing again, Mr Moggy; whether the picture arrives on time, a tiny bit early (to the left) or a tiny bit late (to the right).
You really need somebody like noggin, who might blind you with science <grin>, but WILL know the proper answer.
Yay, I now have an official Nick-name.
Surely if there's these tiny black bars on both sides, then the picture is both early
and
late?
