HD channels broadcasting 4:3 programming in 16:9: Stretchovision!

I used to think TNT HD was the worst offender in this category. Until I saw A&E HD. Holy moly!

Are the cable networks setting a dangerous precedent with "stretchovision?" Will this be the norm for programming shot in 4x3 after the digital switch? Is there anything we can do to prevent this from happening?

 

I gather you're seeing some HD channels broadcasting 4:3 programming in 16:9. Is that correct?

 

Until they have more "made for HD" programming you're gonna see this. I just flip over to the SD channel and watch the same program.

 

A&E HD's "stretchovision" dives me buggy -- they clearly have no freakin' idea what they're doing. Among other things, I've seen them air material that was recorded in 16:9, letterboxed down to 4:3, and then stretched horizontally again to fill the 16:9 frame!

They get it right occasionally, so the problem is almost certainly procedural rather than technical. It's almost as if they're trying to figure out a way to feed the 4:3 SD channel and the 16:9 HD channel from the same video source, and keep getting the aspect ratio conversions wrong.

 

That's correct. And, as Lazlo stated, they're also airing 16:9 programming letterboxed for 4x3, then streched back into 16:9.

 

You know, I have been having this argument with my sisters today. They want to watch everything stretched out of porportion. It doesn't bother them. All they care about is the picture filling out the full screen. I can't stand to watch the picture unless the dimensions are accurate. They don't mind if the wheels of a car look like ovals, or that a human head looks deformed.

I think giving people the option to adjust a picture the way they want, even if they are broadcast wrong, is a bad thing.

 

I don't care what other people watch. I have my first widescreen finally and I watch 4:3 with pillars and all widescreen modes fit to the screen's width.

Apparently the unit's built in tuner can do this automatically but I'm only using it as a monitor off of an AV receiver getting componant signal from the DVD player and from the cable box. So I have to use the tv's remote to manually change the viewing mode.

 

I don't get A&E or TBS in HD, but I do get TNT, and I remember seeing an episode of The X-Files or something stretched out. Its a good thing that TNT broadcasts nothing I want to watch anyways!

A friend of mine has his DVD player connected to his 16:9 TV (720p TV, I think) through HDMI, and he can't view 4:3 DVDs properly on his TV. I don't know why. He can view regular TV properly, though he prefers to stretch it out, arrgh.

 

I saw a weird one on the History Channel HD this weekend. They had something that appeared to be shot in 16:9, then letterboxed down a little further so it appeared almost like 2.35:1 film, but none of it looked right. At first, I thought maybe the setting on the set was wrong, but the History Channel logo was in its proper place outside the letterbox area. Odd.

 

Bad Aspect Ratios are among my top annoyance for 2007. Nothing makes me woozy more than seeing "fat people" on 16x9 displays all over a department store. And broadcasters that convert 4x3 pictures to stretched images should be shot. There oughta be a law...

I agree with Steve that this is essentially the video version of fake stereo: fake widescreen. Stretch-O-Vision is like "Duophonic Stereo for the Eyes." Yeeeeeesh...

 

Me neither! I won't watch TV at my sister's anymore! Either that, or i'll just correct it when she's not around.

You know, last night, I asked her why she spent thousands of dollars on a huge Sony Bravia full HD 1080P, only to have the picture look bad and stretched out, and she got quiet. We are living in a bad time! People listen to crappy mp3s on crappy earbuds, watch widescreen TVs with the wrong aspect ratio, and like zig-zag surround sound. Augghhh!!! Oh, yeah...did I mention using people the vivid selection, where the colors blare at you and look very unnatural?

OK, let's see, we have Stretch-O-Vision, blaring color, and zoom-in...what else? It almost makes me long for the old days when people were content to watch TV with everything in green tint.

EDIT: my sister was being nosey and looked over my shoulder at what I just wrote above , and she told me to leave her TV alone! And, she just turned it on. She has it turned up way too loud!

 

I noticed this over the weekend, and early this week. Have the week off.

I guess I hadn't been paying enough attention, but the HD channels with the sidebars or shown in proper ratio really bring out this horrific looking mess when you see it.

I was watching something and the stretch looked like bizzaro-world. TBS looks horrible.

 

I never watch anything that is stretchovision. I have yet to hear a good reason for the networks to broadcast it this way. This we must fill the screen attitude is ridiculous. Why not educate the viewers on the different formats?

 

And we expect the average man/woman to care about the "loudness wars" when they have no problem with something this obviously wrong?

 

I'd guess there's an urge to fill the screen up, as there's an urge to fill all the 16 bits. Compressed Cds may be related to visual interfaces in recording mixing equipment.

Most people in my opera club prefers an stretched image rather than pillarboxed. You can imagine what it does to many sopranos. The majority of opera DVDs are 3:4.

 

I've seen noticing some sort of computerized Stretch-O-Vision, where the middle is relatively unaffected but the sides are increasingly expanded beyond all reason to fill the widescreen. Thus, someone's head will inflate as they leave the center of the shot, or deflate as they approach the center. This is even more annoying than the standard Stretch-O-Vision. It's like watching everything through a fish-eye lens.

 

The stupid thing is, if the viewer wants to fill his screen with the weird stretch, most HDTVs have the ability to do the stretch themselves.

But it is impossible to make the proportions correct after they have been screwed up by the broadcaster.

 

Ditto to all of the above. I can't watch stretcho programming. It hurts my eyes. Literally.

I too have a relative who doesn't mind stretcho. He simply does not notice it.

By the way, he WORKS in broadcasting.


And how about all of the HD programming with audio and video BADLY out of sync?

Apparently these issues are "growing pains" for the relatively new medium. We sure hope so.

 

I remember when anamorphic DVD's first came out. I saw mostly oval wheels, tires, and shots of the earth as I cruised past stores. wtf?

When I first obtained letterboxed laserdisc movies, it took me a half-hour to explain to guests why the picture looked the way it did.

Making things worse, there are many in TV that have zero idea what makes good video and/or sound, but are in a position to do whatever they so desire.

Some of us hear NoNoised/maximized sound, and can complain all we want, only to be bypassed by those "above" us.



Dan

 

Annoying, un-watchable, and just-plain-wrong.

TNT-HD will show programs like The Closer and Amazing Grace in great 16x9, and then the commercial spots in these shows for the same show will be stretch-o-vision from a 16x9 source. Whole shows like older X-Files will be stretched. TBS-HD is the worst offender.

I regularly deal with people at Turner in post production. I grilled them on this, and now they greet me as a welcome troublemaker. They claim that this is a corporate choice, passed down from above, based on market research. They say they tested each of the alternatives - all kinds of stretching, cropping, pillars, etc. - and this was the least-objectionable to the widest variety of viewers. Their guess is that even if they figured out they are wrong, it will take as long as a few years to un-**** this.

We should be able to fight with our $$$, but there essentially is no free-market supply/demand competition, especially if Time/Warner delivers your TV to your home.

Let's fight with our email messages, snail mail letters, and phone calls:

-Philip I. Kent oversees TBS, Inc. as chairman and chief executive officer.
[email protected]
One CNN Center
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Phone: 404-827-1700

-Richard D. Parsons is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Time Warner Inc.
[email protected]

Time Warner shareholder?
-All stockholders wishing to communicate with the Board should address letters to:
c/o Office of the Corporate Secretary
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019

 

What if that's true? It's very possible we've fallen so far that NOBODY GETS IT.

 

Well, it's obvious that this is a choice on their part. Most of the other networks do this better. Turner's presentation is consistent (bad). Ergo, choice, on a network level, not accident.

NBC seems to get it right, on the local network HD OTA or on cable, on USA, on Bravo, on UHD, etc. Even the CW seems to get it right. Both show native 16x9 in 16x9, native 4x3 in 4x3 with pillars, and the CW seems to show some 4x3 content with the top and bottom slightly chooped, which is a far better solution that stretching it (although Turner apparently fears advertiser backlash in some way).

Now, let's get started on audio, with dynamic shows, loud compressed commercials, mono switching to stereo switching to 5.1...when tools to make all this consistent are readily available. Or not.

 

Yuck. I'm no videophile by any means, but image stretching to fill the screen (by either the broadcaster or the TV owner) is downright nauseating.

I feel all of you with friends and family who just try to fill the screen. It's like they don't think they're getting bang for their buck unless every pixel is lit up.

 

Same as colorizing, most people prefer to fill the screen and only a few don't like it.

It's only TV, after all.

I plan to keep my 20-years old Sony SXR 32" until it dies out but after that it's strech-o-time or pillarbox for my 3:4 software. My player does a lousy job of pillarboxing so most of the time I watch 3:4 DVDs in stretch mode. I don't mind as the TV does a balance between cropping and stretching that produces acceptable results.