[FTLOSM]

As I flip thru the different digital OTA signals I notice each is different in terms of its image size ( I like 2 &32's using black side bars vs 5 & 7's zooming the pic up cutting off the top and bottom edges and in general the pic looks better with black side bars if the program is a 4:3).


My question is what do most of YOU GUYS/GALS prefer to see?


I wonder why some display the bars (which I MUCH prefer) and some

do the zoom thing which to me is irritating and distorted looking making the

digital signal nothing special to watch vs analog really in some cases.


Now when HD is on (whatever channel) its amazingly cool so I just put up with the way things are,,,and I am not very technical so I probably am not explaining this in the best terms but I think you all get the gist of what I am saying.


So which do you prefer and is there anyway we can get some stations (like 5) to go to using the bars and giving us a better picture (my opinion).


Bill

 

[John Kotches]

Hmmm...


My preference is for the minimum distortion experience.


I use a DLP, so wear/tear issues are essentially irrelevant -- black or grey bars are ok, however black bars make the image "float" more on the projection screen. Those with CRT (either FPTV or RPTV) have wear issues with the guns.


The absolute worst is NBCs letterbox SD images, which end up being a

16:9 (broadcast) within a 4:3 (SDTV) within a 16:9 (HDTV). It's a shame they don't have a scaler in use that could scale the 16:9 within 4:3 to straight 16:9.


Regards,

 

[rad]

Here's a poll that I ran awhile ago asking this question, the majority said they preferred OAR and not stretched/zoomed images:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=134873


WFLD used to stretch but when we requested that they stop the practice they listened and we have what we have now. The question is how to get the other stations to follow the lead of WBBM and WFLD?

 

[FTLOSM]

ah i see already been discussed with a poll and everything, well I put my vote in, sure looks like 4:3 wins out on everychoice, heck I will take a few mins today to zap some emails off with links directly to that vote page!


Can't hurt to try,,, sending emails to wmaq and wls wgn and wttw,,,


to me tho fox and cbs are in 4:3 from what I see and I think they look DARN good side by side vs the streched garbage.


Bill

 

[greywolf]

Quote:

Originally posted by John Kotches The absolute worst is NBCs letterbox SD images, which end up being a 16:9 (broadcast) within a 4:3 (SDTV) within a 16:9 (HDTV). It's a shame they don't have a scaler in use that could scale the 16:9 within 4:3 to straight 16:9.

It would be nice, wouldn't it. As it is, the only time I use the Theatrewide 1 distortion mode on my TV is watching "The West Wing". The distortion mode of the broadcast is nearly balanced by the distortion mode of the TV.

 

[Forceflow]

The ideal solution is what WGN does, 1 stretched channel, 1 4:3 channel. Since WGN does virtually no HD programs multicasting is advantageous and welcome. Its not perfect, but right now is the ideal solution until HDTV is more prevalent.

 

[Chris Williams]

I much prefer to see 4:3 "windowboxed" inside a 16:9 signal. I have a properly aligned CRT projector, and have used one for 12 years with no burn-in.


People fear "burn-in" out of all proportion to reality. The problem crops up in situations where the exact same graphic element appears in the exact same place for many hours, day after day for a month or more. Like the bright white "Mitsubishi" logo superimposed on the HD demo material loaded into the Sencore HD simulators. This was the only HD material a lot of big screen dealers had for the first year or so, and they played that every hour the store was open. More than 12 hours a day of the exact same thing burned it in. So the dealers became over-sensitive to "burn-in" and Mitsubishi repaired a lot of dealer units (and the dealers had to eat other brands of big screen - Toshiba was not going to fix a problem caused by Mitsubishi). So now every Mitsubishi big screen has this big warning tag and people are all freaked out.


This fear is causing us to get digital TV signals warped and cropped for no good reason. Just give me the signal in it's original aspect ratio and let me worry about burn-in. If the broadcasters are worried, broadcast a series of test patterns on a sub-channel with graphics explaining how to adjust brightness and contrast. Static images shouldn't take very much bandwidth.


I posted to the WTTW message board suggesting that WTTW continue with their current approach, except when they are showing 480P 16:9 or 1080i material. Then, they could put a still graphic on 11.2 advising the viewer that the program is available in HD on 11.1.