If you’ve got Foxtel and a flat-panel TV, you’re sure to understand the frustration that is watching a channel in 4:3 ratio on your TV… Those sidebars are ug-lee. Fortunately, a Foxtel rep told David Knox at TV Tonight that all their channels would be widescreen by 2011.
There’s also a full rundown of the current widescreen channels over at TV Tonight, if you want to know which ones have got your widescreen back…
matt
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 10:52 AM“no one is saying the war on blackbars will be easy, but with enough commitment, we will persevere and ave our boys home for Christmas”
Nathan Millson
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:05 AMWhat about Simpsons? Will that be upscaled? ;-D
noise maker and manipulator
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:35 AMNo Nathan, most shows *won’t* be upscaled.
All this means is the transmission will be in a 16:9 ratio. Any program material will be displayed within that ratio. So, early simpsons will be its original 4:3 presentation, with black bars on the left and right, all nicely wrapped up in a 16:9 transmission stream.
What this really means is you will no longer see the dreaded “postage stamp” effect.
This is where 16:9 or even 2.35:1 material is transmitted in a 4:3 stream (with black bars at the top and bottom), only to be played back on your widescreen (16:9) tv – and a 4:3 stream on a 16:9 tv displays black bars on the left and right. So you end up with a “small” widescreen presentation surrounded by black on all 4 sides. Now, while most 16:9 tv’s “upscale” for you (if you go into the picture settings) – this is really a “stop gap” measure – you are seeing a much lower resolution version than otherwise.
I’d say a lot of the push towards this is from the advertising side. They all present their material differently – and as a production house, you never know how it might end up being shown on different stations! Yup, its a mine field.
So, in short : MOST shows will simply be presented in their original format (NOT upscaled), all wrapped up in a nice 16:9 stream. Make sense?
Cheers!
StevoTheDevo
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:49 AMI can’t believe people pay big dollars for such a terrible service!
2011! It’s a disgrace that they’re not doing this already!
They do realise that if people have thousands of dollars to “waste” (in my opinion) on Pay-TV, they are highly likely to have the money to buy a widescreen TV.
How many Foxtel subscribers watch on a 4:3 set in November 2009?
Adam
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 1:06 PMi watch it on my 4:3 CRT, and it all looks great to me.. i am hapy with the black bars at the top and bottom when something is in 16:9, but i wish it could auto sclae back up when something is in 4:3..
hugh
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 7:10 PMi make tv ads for a living and from a creators point of view. 16:9 is alot easier to make then 4:3. but the most annoying thing is making sure text is still in 4:3 on the 16:9 screen. the sooner 4:3 dies the better so we can give you prettier ads and that are less squished in.