but definitely not stretched.
What are you talking about? Everyone else in America is seeing TBS as stretched like TNT on non-HD programming but yours has black bars? Yes, TBS is stretch-o-vision for non HD stuff.
When you take a standard 4:3 program and put it on a 16x9 TV, it has black bars since the TV is wider than the native format the program was produced in. Some people choose to stretch their 4:3 stuff to fit the screen of a 16x9 TV, which is fine for them. Some channels like TNT and now TBS, are taking the 4:3 programming, and making the decision for you and stretching it to fit the screen when they feed you the channel. A lot of people don't like this, which is a good point. Why not let the consumer stretch it if they like, or watch it with black bars? When you watch standard cable on a 16x9 HD TV you are either watching with bars or stretching to fit the screen.
Obviously, when you are watching a 16x9 HD program it is not stretched, as it fits the screen. HBO plays its movies on HBO in 4:3 and then 16x9HD on the HD channel, as opposed to just stretching the 4:3 video to fit a 16x9 screen. TBS was stretching a movie the other night and not using the HD 16x9 version of the film, which exists. Sometimes there is no HD version and they have no choice but to air the 4:3 SD footage. But they should let the consumer decide if they want it stretched.
Take a closer look at your TV, those shows are stretched on TBS when they are not in HD. Personally, I don't care as I don't watch TBS or TNT much, but a lot of people really get angry about this and make it known on satelliteguys.us.
Sunday AM-
Just flipped back and forth between TBS and TBS HD. They were airing Chicken Little. It was stretched on TBS HD and not in HD. That movie was created in widescreeen and there most certainly is an HD version they could have aired, rather than stretching the pan and scan version of the same movie. Proof-
Amazon.com: Chicken Little [Blu-ray]: DVD: Joan Cusack,Don Knotts,Catherine O'Hara,Wallace Shawn,Patrick Stewart,Patrick Warburton,Adam West,Fred Willard,Garry Marshall,Harry Shearer,Steve Zahn,Zach Braff,Amy Sedaris,Katie Finneran,John Debney,Mark D
Get a life TBS. It is bad enough you air feature films chopped up with commercials, shorten the film to fit your time needs and your time slot, edit out parts of movies that might be PG, but now you have an HD channel and rather than air your movies in HD, you are stretching out the 4:3 frame of the pan and scan edition of the movie, and putting that piece of crap on the air. You obviously fool enough people to get good ratings, but you can't fool us all. Anybody that knows anything at all about HD and aspect ratios knows you are full of it!
But again, I really don't care, because I don't watch hardly any TBS or TNT. But I see why there is an uproar.