Hi ... new member here and hoping someone with more knowledge than myself can clear up a few things with the way (most) television shows are broadcast (leading up to and) since the “digital transition”.
For the record, I am north of the metro Atlanta, Georgia area and I have been a Dish subscriber for over six years now, still have a Panasonic projection tv (with alleged hd-digital capability) that is due to be replaced (but has to wait out the recession sadly).
The issue is: Why are so many television shows being broadcast in a manner that enlarges what is obviously a widescreen presentation, into the “standard” tv “square”? These shows are enlarged so much that you can have a shot where there are two actors onscreen and yet one or both of them are cut off ... or someone is speaking to a person on (for example) the extreme right side of the screen and that person is cut off. Not to mention the way that most backgrounds are cut off.
Sometimes you never know what you are going to get: There are weeks that “American Idol” was shown in wide-screen, other times it’s enlarged to fill the screen. Recently, Fox has shown it’s new show, “Glee” in the proper widescreen format but how long will that last?
I have called, emailed and snail-mailed Dish Network about this, though I suspect this may be one issue that is not their “fault”. Before the “transition”, I was able to view “Lost” over antenna (as an experiment) and it was similarly enlarged. I actually took photos of my TV and how the broadcast shows up and created diagrams in order to make my point on this issue. I sent this in pdf-form via email and printed it out in snail-mail.
I have emailed and snail-mailed a few of the local Atlanta-based network affiliates. To my surprise, it was not long after one of my letters went through that the local NBC affiliate, WXIA-channel 11 made a move that allowed most of their shows to come through in wide-screen. That would be stuff like “The Office”, “30 Rock” and “SNL” ... and if you watch carefully as each show transitions into the next you can see the picture briefly revert back to the ‘full-screen’ format and then back to the “wide-screen” format.
Sadly, NBC is the only local network to “fix” this issue and I wish we can get through to the others. I would love to see this season’s “Lost” in the widescreen format that is it obviously meant to be in. Is there any way to get this remedied without switching to the higher-priced (and dubious?) “digital” local feeds? I mean, it seemed to work for one network.
Thanks,
Ray in Atlanta
For the record, I am north of the metro Atlanta, Georgia area and I have been a Dish subscriber for over six years now, still have a Panasonic projection tv (with alleged hd-digital capability) that is due to be replaced (but has to wait out the recession sadly).
The issue is: Why are so many television shows being broadcast in a manner that enlarges what is obviously a widescreen presentation, into the “standard” tv “square”? These shows are enlarged so much that you can have a shot where there are two actors onscreen and yet one or both of them are cut off ... or someone is speaking to a person on (for example) the extreme right side of the screen and that person is cut off. Not to mention the way that most backgrounds are cut off.
Sometimes you never know what you are going to get: There are weeks that “American Idol” was shown in wide-screen, other times it’s enlarged to fill the screen. Recently, Fox has shown it’s new show, “Glee” in the proper widescreen format but how long will that last?
I have called, emailed and snail-mailed Dish Network about this, though I suspect this may be one issue that is not their “fault”. Before the “transition”, I was able to view “Lost” over antenna (as an experiment) and it was similarly enlarged. I actually took photos of my TV and how the broadcast shows up and created diagrams in order to make my point on this issue. I sent this in pdf-form via email and printed it out in snail-mail.
I have emailed and snail-mailed a few of the local Atlanta-based network affiliates. To my surprise, it was not long after one of my letters went through that the local NBC affiliate, WXIA-channel 11 made a move that allowed most of their shows to come through in wide-screen. That would be stuff like “The Office”, “30 Rock” and “SNL” ... and if you watch carefully as each show transitions into the next you can see the picture briefly revert back to the ‘full-screen’ format and then back to the “wide-screen” format.
Sadly, NBC is the only local network to “fix” this issue and I wish we can get through to the others. I would love to see this season’s “Lost” in the widescreen format that is it obviously meant to be in. Is there any way to get this remedied without switching to the higher-priced (and dubious?) “digital” local feeds? I mean, it seemed to work for one network.
Thanks,
Ray in Atlanta
