Broadcast TV format question

I watch some programs on PBS TV that are strangely formatted. The video image is bordered on all 4 sides by black. This makes for a quite smaller image.

If this were an aspect ration issue the image would be either full width or full height (bars on only 2 sides).

What's the reason for this odd formatting?

A better forum in which to ask this?

Thanks.

Reply to
Paul Conners
Loading thread data ...

What's likely happening is that the broadcast is adding the top and bottom borders, because the broadcast is in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but the program is a wide-screen format like 16:9 or whatever. Then your wide-screen TV takes the

4:3 broadcast and adds borders of its own, resulting in borders on all sides.

Dig through your TV's menus to see if any combination of its zoom and aspect ratio options helps.

That would be the expected case if the broadcast itself didn't have the black bars embedded in the video.

Reply to
Kaz Kylheku

not enough pixels in the video?

formatting link

--
For a good time: install ntp
Reply to
Jasen Betts

That's a 16:9 program reduced and padded to 4:3 (top bars) and then reduced and padded again to 16:9 (side bars). Sometimes PBS will run it through that cycle twice and transmit it at 640x480i to make sure that it's completely destroyed.

Digital TV's have a "zoom" mode to get rid of the padding caused by cyclic conversion. Some TVs, like Panasonic, have upscaling and de-interlacing bugs while zoomed so it may look worse.

Reply to
Kevin McMurtrie

Digital TV's may have zoom, but Usenet has digital echo.

Reply to
Kaz Kylheku

Wipe froth off

Reply to
JACKLOPS

Extremely severe multipath, to be exact. There's little coordination and propagation latency varies from milliseconds to days.

Reply to
Kevin McMurtrie

PBS now has many programs that are in various wide-screen formats. If your set can't (or isn't set to) handle such formats, you get the "border". ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

Enquiring minds want to know... why? I know that "classic" programs need to be broadcast as-is (not re-mastered, whatever that means) for broadcast on DTV, but why do new (in the pass few years) programs take on this same look? Even "live" programs (ie, Nightly News program).

Reply to
Paul Conners

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.