[trekkerj]

Fox broadcasts in 480p, right? I watched a couple of shows today, including Nascar and Malcom in the Middle, they were in full 16:9 with my STB in 1080i mode? I order to fill the screen, doesn't the source material need to be 1080i or 720p?


Then again, I saw several 16:9 shots during the Masters on CBS that were most certainly not hi-def.

 

[XFactor]

Fox Widescreen is not in 1080i. I'm not sure why you would think something would need to use 1080 lines to fill a screen.

 

[trekkerj]

1920 x 1080 is 16:9 in terms of ratio. 480 lines is generally a 4:3 format.

 

[balazer]

Fox Widescreen is usually 704 x 480 16:9.

 

[bfdtv]

trekk,


I take if you've played 16:9 DVDs? Same type of thing here.

 

[Ken H]

Fox Widscreen for live sports is 480i 16:9 digitaly sent to local stations, where it's upconverted to 480p 16:9.


Fox does not do any HDTV at this time.

 

[ManiG]

i think i understand the question here ...


if this is actually broadcast the same as widescreen dvd's, then the image you'd see is a horizontally squeezed 4:3 image (anamorphic widescreen). but you're actually seeing a 16:9 image.


i'm guessing this is because the stb is receiving a digital 720x480 mpeg-2 stream and simply displaying it, and bypasses the trappings of anamorphic analog video transfer/backward compatibility with 4:3 televisions.


-Mani

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by ManiG i think i understand the question here ...

I don't think so. The question was why did a 480p signal fill a 16:9 screen, and the answer is because the 480p was 16:9 AR.

 

[foxeng]

FOX Widescreen IS sent to the stations in 480i anamorphic and is then upconverted to 480p or 1080i on some stations, anamorphic for 16:9 viewing on your TV.

 

[spwace]

To be clear, the anamorphic squeeze is removed at the affiliate and transmitted as 960 X 480p. 480p, 16:9 is one of the formats allowed in the ATSC standard.

 

[trafter]

While this is allowed under the standard, it is not HD. It is also a poor substitute.

 

[CycloneGT]

Well, I like it much better than SD. I wish Fox would use the DD5.1 more often than just for Sports.


Cyclone

 

[trekkerj]

spwace, that would answer my question, thanks. Yes, to the earlier post, I've watched 16:9 dvd's, but my thinking was that those are also really 4:3 squeezed and your tv stretches it out to fill the screen, whereas if fox does the same thing but unsqueezes it first, that would answer my question. I still don't understand why they don't do 1080i or 720p when all the other networks, even WB does. Even UPN is going to do some HD soon, I believe.

 

[balazer]

960 x 480p? Absolutely not.


Most FOX affiliates broadcast 704 x 480 60p 16:9. It is transmitted to the affiliates in 480i and upconverted at the affiliate.

 

[balazer]

For digital TV there is really no anamorphic squeeze per se. It is simply that the MPEG-2 stream has within it a field indicating the aspect ratio - usually 4:3 or 16:9. Your TV set or set-top box will look at that field and scale as necessary to display the picture properly on your monitor.

 

[spwace]

Quote:

Originally posted by balazer For digital TV there is really no anamorphic squeeze per se. It is simply that the MPEG-2 stream has within it a field indicating the aspect ratio - usually 4:3 or 16:9. Your TV set or set-top box will look at that field and scale as necessary to display the picture properly on your monitor.

What FOX sends out is anamorphically squeezed to fit into the 4:3 frame used in the their transport to the affiliates. That squeeze is removed at the affiliate and interpolated to produce a 480p widescreen ATSC compatible data-stream.

 

[balazer]

There is no squeezing. There is no interpolation.


The stream is flagged as 16:9. That's what makes it 16:9.

 

[arxaw]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ken H Fox Widscreen for live sports is 480i 16:9 digitaly sent to local stations, where it's upconverted to 480p 16:9.

Or in the case or our local Faux affiliate , it's upconverted to 1080i 16:9, which looks pretty good. But it still can't compare to a true HD-originated broadcast.

 

[spwace]

Quote:

Originally posted by balazer There is no squeezing. There is no interpolation. The stream is flagged as 16:9. That's what makes it 16:9.

I work at a FOX affiliate and I set the system up to pass the FOX widescreen programming. You are wrong. There is both squeezing and interpolation.


The data that comes out of the FOX supplied receiver is anamorphically squeezed and must be unsqueezed at the affiliate. The unsqueezed signal is then passed to the encoder where the format flags are added.

 

[balazer]

No one sends anything as 960 x 480.


I invite you to read and understand ITU recommendation 601, ATSC document A/53, and ISO/IEC 13818-2 before you say anything further.