Widescreen

With the government trying to increase the takeup of digital television, should ITV follow the BBC's lead and start broadcasting some of it's most popular shows in Widescreen, such as Coronation Street, ITN Bulletins and other high rating programmes? Perhaps Sky News should also consider widescreen when it relaunches soon? What's your opinion?

Considering quite a lot of people have widescreen tvs they should try and broadcast more programmes in 16:9 as it looks better as it is also more natural to the eye.

But have quite a lot of people got widescreen? I may be natural to the eye but to the average viewer a) black bars can be *very* annoying and b) they think they're actually seeing less of the screen.

I'm all for widescreen (I think when ITV go on SKY we'll see a lot more widescreen programmes) but the uptake is going to be pretty slow.

Cheers, Asa

I don't personally find the 'black bars' that annoying, it's the same with DOG's - you just get used to it after a while. Just out of interest, what do you have your screen settings set to if watching digital TV on a normal 4:3 TV. Normal 4:3, 4:3 Letterbox or 16:9. We set our NTL digibox is set to 4:3 Letterbox. Can't stand normal 4:3 because with widescreen programmes you get only half the picture and 16:9 is also awful as the image is stretched and everybody looks as though they've been through a mangle...

I have mine set to 4:3 Letterbox.

On analogue 16:9 widescreen programmes are usually transmitted at 14:9 ratio - anyone know why?

No, certainly not is the easy answer.
Considering the fact that the number of people with widescreen (in percentage terms) is still in single figures it makes very little logical sense to go widescreen.
Eventually most people will have it, but the fact is, for most it is too expensive and people will carry on with their perfectly good 4:3 Tv's until they break down.
I think Sky conducted a survey into it a while ago and concluded that it was not a viable option for a while, but this was about a year or so ago, so they may change.
However, currently it is only BBC channels and certain others that broadcast in widescreen.
Incidentally, quite a few programmes on ITV are actually already widescreen, This Morning for example has been widescreen for a while.

I'm not sure that 'This Morning' is broadcast in 16:9. Whilst watching this in 4:3 Letterbox it looks as thought it's a zoom on the 4:3 image to fit the 14:9 frame only - in other words the black bars are 'added'...

But why would they do that? It's silly how BBC regional news tries to look widescreen, by adding the black bars. You can see them appearing!!! How unprofessional.

I know. Here in the Look East Region they sometimes 'forget' to remove the bars which looks very unprofessional. Also does anyone know why Weather broadcasts on BBC ONE and TWO analogue were, after relaunch, broadcast in 14:9 then a few weeks later switched back to 4:3. Was it that the weather symbols were too small on the 14:9 image and the BBC got complaints from viewers?

Firstly its not called 14:9 its 14:6 mode. BBC regional news crop the picture to help people with digital widescreen tv's. On analouge the black bars are not just added in because you can tell when a picture is fake widescreen, the picture would seem very close up if they just added black bars. Widescreen tv's are now just about the only option in most shops for a normal tv. This will rapidly increase the takeup of widescreen. BBC design there channels so that it will look good on both 4:3 and 16:9. Iremember eastenders being filmed, the director watches all three formats during recordings to make sure all the action is visible in every mode. This is also why when you watch news 24 in 16:9 the DOGS are near the middle of the screen and not the sides.

Sorry about my incorrect terminology! I'm fairly new to all the jargon so I'm sorry if I've made a few boo boo's. It was interesting what you said about DOG's been positioned in the 4:3 'safe area', this is most evident with News 24, afterall with 3 normal DOG's and and FTSE DOG during the business news who can miss them.

No David, it is called '14:9' even though technically, the format isn't the same as '16:9' (widescreen) or '4:3' (normal tv) It's sort of a compromise.

The black bars are just in added in, because you can tell on programmes like Look North where for the first few frames there aren't any bars then they suddenly appear to chop off the top and bottom of the screen literally.

Cheers, Asa