gone

Food Network HD is a stretch-o-vision channel. They do a non-linear stretch for the upconverted SD material. You can see the same effect when the camera pans for the upconverted SD stuff on TNT-HD.

It's non linear stretching where the sides are more warped than in the center. i don't like this type of upconversion. If you're going to stretch, do it proportionally so that viewers who have the ability to un-stretch, can

I've seen the same effect on HGTV HD with upconverted shows were they stretch the sides.

Unfortunately there are probably more people who complain about those "black bars", or "the picture doesn't fill my screen" than those who prefer shows in their original aspect ratio.

To me it is like the attempt to "colorize" old B&W shows because "nobody watches B&W anymore".