Cable Forum - View Single Post - ITV football never widescreen on VM / sky?

RedLiam · 05-04-2007, 00:06

As has been said, ITV and Sky are not responsible for the picture shape - it is the responsibility of the host broadcaster. When a match is played in Britain, the host broadcaster is either ITV or Sky, and the game is in 16:9 (and also HD on Sky).

The main issue here is what to do with the feed the host broadcaster provides if it's in 4:3. ITV, who naturally will have studio presentation in 16:9 choose to present the match in 4:3 in a 16:9 frame, so you get black bars down the side. This is fine if you would rather a 4:3 image stay in its correct form, but if you prefer stretching it then you need to change the settings on your box to 4:3 normal, and let your TV stretch the image.

Sky operate slightly differently. They take a 4:3 feed and zoom in on it, as well as stretching it slightly. They then put their own score graphics on it, which look as they should do. However, as the host broadcaster also puts the main graphics (ie. player name captions, yellow card captions) onto the pictures, these look hopelessly large when Sky treat the pictures in this way.

In my opinion ITV's method is better. I say this because if you prefer to maintain the correct dimensions of a 4:3 picture you can, and if you prefer to stretch it to fill a widescreen TV then you can just change the picture settings on your box. With Sky you get no choice, and are forced to watch their mangled pictures which, sadly, many readilt put up with.

And to answer one theory put forward on page 1 of this thread, Sky do not buy better quality feeds. They will be provided with the same feed that ITV would be provided with were they covering the match. Their HD channels just show their SD content, but upscaled. However, they're still not in proper 16:9.

ITV's picture quality, however, is an entirely different matter...

05-04-2007, 00:06	#19
RedLiam Inactive Join Date: Jun 2006 Services: Virgin TV (V+) and Phone (Both 'Size XL'), Virgin Broadband ('Size L') Posts: 50	Re: ITV football never widescreen on VM / sky? As has been said, ITV and Sky are not responsible for the picture shape - it is the responsibility of the host broadcaster. When a match is played in Britain, the host broadcaster is either ITV or Sky, and the game is in 16:9 (and also HD on Sky). The main issue here is what to do with the feed the host broadcaster provides if it's in 4:3. ITV, who naturally will have studio presentation in 16:9 choose to present the match in 4:3 in a 16:9 frame, so you get black bars down the side. This is fine if you would rather a 4:3 image stay in its correct form, but if you prefer stretching it then you need to change the settings on your box to 4:3 normal, and let your TV stretch the image. Sky operate slightly differently. They take a 4:3 feed and zoom in on it, as well as stretching it slightly. They then put their own score graphics on it, which look as they should do. However, as the host broadcaster also puts the main graphics (ie. player name captions, yellow card captions) onto the pictures, these look hopelessly large when Sky treat the pictures in this way. In my opinion ITV's method is better. I say this because if you prefer to maintain the correct dimensions of a 4:3 picture you can, and if you prefer to stretch it to fill a widescreen TV then you can just change the picture settings on your box. With Sky you get no choice, and are forced to watch their mangled pictures which, sadly, many readilt put up with. And to answer one theory put forward on page 1 of this thread, Sky do not buy better quality feeds. They will be provided with the same feed that ITV would be provided with were they covering the match. Their HD channels just show their SD content, but upscaled. However, they're still not in proper 16:9. ITV's picture quality, however, is an entirely different matter...