Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

I'm an NTL digital customer in Stockport (ex C&W) and recently got my first widescreen TV. Everything seems to be working fine except I notice than whenever there is a local BBC1 programme, eg the local news inserts during Breakfast, the picture gets a single vertical black bar, approx 2-3cm wide, at the right hand side of the picture. The cable box is set correctly to widescreen and all the other channels appear to be fine although I've not noticed if it does it on BBC2 if they are showing a regional programme.

Previous to this I had a large screen 4:3 TV but with the box set to letterbox and it never happened before. I've rebooted the box, changed the screen settings, all the usual things I can think of.

Any ideas? Is this a "feature" of BBC in the North West or have I got a fault?

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

hi and :welcome: to the site , i have never seen just one black bar , quite often see 2 , 1 either side though , depends on the signal they broadcast :(

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Thanks. Yeah I know what you mean - it's not that the picture is 4:3 and getting the double bars because the TV is switching ratio - the TV displays the picture mode (i.e. smart, wide, 4:3) when it does and I don't see any of that.

It's literally like the picture just shrinks by a couple of cm's on the right hand side. Soon as they go back to national programming it's back to normal.

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

has it done it since you got the tv or has it just started ???????? :)

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

A lot of the BBC local news stuff is not recorded in widescreen, so the BBC broadcast it in an "in-between 4:3 and 16:9" format.
It does mean that if watching in widescreen you will see small black bars at the side of the screen.

They should be visible at both the left & right side of the screen, so it sounds as if either your STB is not showing the full picture, or the picture on your TV is not quite central which is the more probable cause.

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Since I got it - this is also the second new TV (the first went back with a fault) and both had the same "feature".

Sounds like a possibility - I will give it check. Pretty sure the picture is central though as it looks fine on other stuff where you would notice things missing off the side of the screens like other channels displaying graphics right up to the edge of the picture. I suppose if the box was displaying an incomplete picture it would show up there as well?

Also looks fine on PS2 games - (although that's using a different scart input it shouldn't be any different should it ???) As I said, this is the second TV (Sony 28" 100Hz Wega) and both have done this - there is a RGB centering option in menu but it doesn't allow me to select it when set to the cable box (which is set to RGB output btw).

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Yep, I'm in Stockport too and have also noticed the single black bar, on the the left hand side.


Also, the picture is very 'liney'. Even at about 6 feet from the TV (sony 32") I can see very fine horizontal lines scrolling up the screen. This is only on the BBC local news.

Both 'features' are exactly the same, every day.

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

I've seen the black bar on the screen but I cannot remeber what side it was on.

although it was on News broadcasts, and NOT on any reguar programmes.

So I believe it just a BBC thing and your TV & STB are OK.

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Yes, and mine is on the right.... mmmm, I'm begining to think that MikeyB is correct and it's that the local news is in a trimmed widescreen so there should be slight bars at either side. That would also explain the "liney" picture if they are just taking a 4:3 picture and zooming it?

Just checked the settings for the scart input and it let me select RGB centering (strange - sure I couldn't before). I've adjusted the picture to the right so I should see less bar, if not one on each side ;)

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

hopefully that will sort it for you then :)

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

It happens with me, on the right side, but only on BBC news programmes, (and even then it's only for certain reports in the bulletin) nothing else. It doesn't happen on any other BBC programme or any other channel :shrug:

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

I'm in Stockport, and it always works for me.
My TV switches between 16:9 widescreen and 4:3 if I switch to another channel (say Granada tonight, as I know this is shown in 4:3 format)

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Problem solved - MikeyB was correct! There is infact a bar on each side but my picture wasn't centred.

Thanks everyone.

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

I think that's a different issue again. Sometimes BBC news crews (especially when reporting from the USA) seem to be using old 4:3 cameras to record their reports. These are 'zoomed in' before broadcast to eliminate the black bars you would normally expect to see down the left and right of the picture on a 16:9 TV. It appears for whatever reason that they don't quite zoom in far enough though. I always get a thin black bar down the right of my picture in these circumstances.

If you have young children you might have spotted a similar effect on the Cbeebies channel. That station's entire output is in 16:9, even for older repeats like Teletubbies (all recorded in 4:3), so the picture is zoomed to almost fill the screen. It means you can't read the closing credits, which zip along the bottom of the picture, but my 19-month-old has never found this to be a problem. :D

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Ah, that is exactly what I have seen occasionally on BBC News 24 - so that explains that :)

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

This issue also affects the older editions of your own series on Cebeebies of course ... :D

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

Seems the US are hanging onto 4:3 as long as they can. Mrs H recently came back with some DVD's that proudly proclaim FULL SCREEN VERSION, in the same way that most here proudly proclaim WIDESCREEN VERSION. Whats that about? Proclaiming the movie has been reformatted...

Needless to say, she though she had bought the W/S version and they were promptly dispatched back to the US for a refund.

Re: Strange black bar on local BBC1 progs
 

The US has elected to adopt Hi-definition TV at the same time as it switches to widescreen (and presumably digitial) transmission. I would have thought that the additional costs associated with this will generally slow down take-up of widescreen TV over there. I'm quite jealous of their HD-TV tho, Jerrek has posted screenshots in the forum in the past and it looks great.

The Government offered UK broadcasters the chance to go HD at the same time as the move to digital, but no-one was keen due to the huge investment required in new hardware. I guess we may have to wait another 5 years before we get it in our homes.