1) In analogue the picture is 14:9. Not so noticable.

2) ITV and C4 have been widescreen for a year and a half at least.

3) Analogue will not switch off in 2006. Mark my words...

I like widescreen - And I don't have a widescreen telly either!

>What are your thoughts....

It's just fabulous!!!

>

Let's face it, there's no chance there going to be able to turn of analogue signals by that deadline. Not enough people are intereasted in digital services, and are put of by the cost (hence ONdigital giving the things away). Also, being an owner of ONDigital, i find it a bit shit and pathetic, with too many channels that i can't see appealing to any niche audience (Carlton Food Network, anyone?)

Having said that, i don't have any problem with moving to widesrceen - the black bars don't annoy me, and i hardly even notice them.

Its not full-on widescreen anyway is it?
presumably we'll just have small black bars topnbottom which is ok with me (widescreen tv's will still be stretching), but if you watch a cinema film in proper widescreen on a square telly you get huge black bars of about 1/5 the height of the screen each which i would not like to see all the time.
Admittedly I dont know all the technical notation: some people in here call normal telly 4/3, does this mean a normal picture isnt square? And what is 14/9? and what proportion is a cinema screen? and what will they do when showing repeats that wernt made in widescreen - crush them anyway?

>Its not full-on widescreen anyway is it?

On ITV, Channel 4 and possibly channel 5 it will be, on digital.

On analogue, it will be cropped to 14:9 within a 4:3 frame. On many digital. 4:3 only channels it will probably be the same.
>presumably we'll just have small black bars topnbottom

Yes, on analogue and some digital - 14:9
>which is ok with me (widescreen tv's will still be stretching)

only if incorrectly set up!
>, but if you watch a cinema film in proper widescreen on a square telly you get huge black bars of about 1/5 the height of the screen each which i would not like to see all the time.

It depends. a 16:9 picture on a 4:3 screen means 1/4 of the picture is black (I think). a Normal cinema picture means 7/8 of the picture is black.

>Admittedly I dont know all the technical notation: some people in here call normal telly 4/3, does this mean a normal picture isnt square?

Yeah - a normal telly is not square! What ever made you think it was! Normal TVs are in the proportion 4 units across, 3 up. Most computer monitors are like this too. 640/480 = 64/48 = 32/24 = 16/12 = 8/6 = 4/3!

And what is 14/9?

14:9 is a compromise between 4:3 (=12:9) and 16:9. It is used mainly to present 16:9 images on a 4:3. Some of the side of the image is usually 'protected' which means that analogue viewers won't see it, but it wasn;t that important anyway. If 16:9 is cropped to 4:3 completely, important parts of the picture can be lost.

>what will they do when showing repeats that wernt made in widescreen - crush them anyway?

No, 4:3 programmes will continue to be shown filling the screen on analogue for the time being. Most will also be shown this way on Digital.

I hope this is slightly clearer and I am not rambling incoherently once again!

>>Its not full-on widescreen anyway is it?
>On ITV, Channel 4 and possibly channel 5 it will be, on digital.

Don't forget you can zoom the picture to 4:3 on digital set top boxes (infact, most of the manuals that come with the boxes assume that's what 4:3 TV owners will prefer).

They really need a 14:9 zoom option as well though as broadcasters do assume you are watching in 16:9 or 14:9...

>Don't forget you can zoom the picture to 4:3 on digital set top boxes (infact, most of the manuals that come with the boxes assume that's what 4:3 TV owners will prefer).

Yeah, some 16:9 programmes look AWFUL when cropped to 4:3. It is ironic that digital is resulting in some people watching fewer programmes in widescreen.

>They really need a 14:9 zoom option as well though as broadcasters do assume you are watching in 16:9 or 14:9...

Yeah, a 14:9 option would be really useful for News 24 as most stories are 14:9 (cropped from 4:3) with black bars left and right. So you either crop to 4:3 and lose even more of the picture, or watchin 16:9 widescreen and have a black surround - i.e. postage stamp image.

Picture quality can really degrade when some programmes (e.g. TTIAO) crop 4:3 to 16:9 and the viewers crop this to 4:3 again.

But does field-removed video look any better in Widescreen? Or on digital?

I love these technical strands... so much impenetrable detail to go into...

>They really need a 14:9 zoom option as well though as broadcasters do assume you are watching in 16:9 or 14:9...

Digital providers really need to take this into account. I have OnDigital and can switch between 16:9 or 4:3. I have a smallish TV and watching in 16:9 is not practical for me. So it ends up in 4:3. Urgh. No. Not good. The BBC is brilliant in this respect - News 24 works wonderfully on 4:3. But it shouldn't have to. Those evil DOGs look awful on widescreen because they are positioned to be shown at all times even if the viewer is on 14:9. But on other channels, they are not always so considerate.

If digital companies offered 14:9 and 16:9 on their services, TV companies could show all modern programs with a wider picture and not too many bars. It's ludicrous that on analogue most new programmes are shown this way, but on digital you end up with 4:3 if you haven't got a big enough TV to cope with 16:9.

>But does field-removed video look any better in Widescreen? Or on digital?
>
>I love these technical strands... so much impenetrable detail to go into...

In my humble opinion, FRV looks crappy in 4/3, 14/9 and 16/9, it just doesn't look right, just like film gone wrong. Bring back VT 4 EVER or use proper film. I know it's more expensive but they had to use it in the 70's and 80's anyway for doing outdoor scenes, as VT cameras were too bulky.

But i digress....

14/9 picture doesn't work very well either as it doesn't work on 16/9 tellys. Picture can be cropped for 14/9 but then you get black bars at the SIDES.

What is the bloody point? 4:3 was fine, 14/16:9 is just hassle

What if someone was to produce a television that was 4:3 but didn't overscan.Then we would have a 14:9 picture or something similar made from a 4:3 image this would be a good product to see us through the transition between 4:3 and 16:9. But would it be possible?

>What if someone was to produce a television that was 4:3 but didn't overscan.Then we would have a 14:9 picture or something

No we wouldn't - we'd just have a smaller 4:3 picture. I think someone did make a 14:9 tv a few years ago which overscanned left and right but not top and bottom. But it didn't sell well. IMO we should all go out and buy widescreens.