Re: Black side stripes
 

ok maybe i missed somit but is widescreen on in the stb settings on it in in 4:3 or 4:3 pan and scan?

in the visual settings on the stb

watched the england match the other day though ntl and fine here.
toshiba widescreen

Re: Black side stripes
 

Very, very last one. If you are watching on 4:3 letterbox or 4:3 Pand S then you won't see black due to signalling from the programme companies. I hope this is what you meant.

Re: Black side stripes
 

I'm certain the narrowness is just perception. If you want to check it out, go to your viewing options and select 4:3 pan and scan on the stb.

The BBC do this black bar stuff all the time with the 4:3 international feeds they get on grandstand. The superbikes and motogp are always presented in this way. I think there are standards that mean they cant switch aspect ratios during the same program so just have to pad out the sides of the picture or (as on CBBC, stretch it), although I have heard a different explanation that the BBC's new editing suites for news, sports and childrens programmes are incapable of doing this anyway but I haven't seen any evidence to back that up.

Re: Black side stripes
 

I would agree with it being perception - a number of time when I have watched a 4:3 picture on a widescreen TV in 4:3 mode it has taken me ages to convince myself that it is not squashed - I think it may have something to do with the fact that the whole screen is not being used and is a sort of optical illusion.

Re: Black side stripes
 

What I was wondering was would it be possible to make use of this wasted space by pushing the 4:3 picture over to the left and have, say, a reults ticker on the right?

Re: Black side stripes
 

Yes they could, as BBC or ITV are adding the side black to the transmission the transmittied picture is effectivly black-football-black, not football with the STB adding black.

So yes it could be football-stats on the screen.

Re: Black side stripes
 

I get this problem on most channels now since they did this software upgrade never used to get it before . To be quite frankly I'm PI-soff with it

Re: Black side stripes
 

What problem?

Re: Black side stripes
 

it's not a problem you are seeing the picture in the exact ration it is being broadcast in and you don't have to press on buttons on the TV or STB to see it correctly. Can't understand what the problem is really.

It's the old widescreen video issue where people thought they were missing part of the film because there were bars there when in fact they were seeing more of it.

I prefer the bars means i get a proper picture and it's clearer as well.

Re: Black side stripes
 

But the crux of the matter is why dont the bbc mntion this before transmitting a event then hundreds of people would not call into ntl and complain when its not a issue they can help with, when i was there it took ages to explain this to people and some still cancelled because of it stating ' my mates sky does not do it' ... well their mates flipping sky was not set up right so all his 16:9 was getting put out in 4.3.

For those of you with a issue regarding this there are 3 options.

1. Simply go to the stb settings and change from 16.9 to 4.3 for the duration of the match.
2. set your tv 4.3 all the time so your viewing picture is wrong all the time.
3. contact all of the other countries broadcasters and explain that you have black bars on your tv because of them and they should update to the 16.9 standard uk dtv uses. :) ;)

Re: Black side stripes
 

I have a 4th option: get used to it. I don't even notice the bars any more.

Re: Black side stripes
 

Exactly!

Black bars I can get used to.
Horrible stretched pictures I cannot.

Re: Black side stripes
 

why did you buy a wide screen TV then if you dont notice the edge 2 inches of the screen?

Re: Black side stripes
 

I fell for the hype. Personally, I don't think there is enough true 16:9 content to make a WSTV worthwhile at the moment (I don't have a DVD).

But back to the point, when I first got it the black bars really bothered me. But now they don't. Oddly, the wife was watching QVC the other day and I instantly noticed it had become widescreen. QVC always used to be a reliable 4:3 channel for testing widescreen signalling; I'm going to have find a new test channel now.

Re: Black side stripes
 

Sky News for the time being, also ITV News are good test channels, as presently they both tx in 4:3.

~Jon