I just connected my voom receiver and I'm watching OTA HD but I'm noticing that several shows are not in 16x9. Is that normal? For instance Dancing with the Stars, Skating w/ the Stars and Survivor. However, most are 16x9 like The Olympics on NBC, CSI, American Idol, etc. I thought all HD broadcasts were 16x9. Was I mistaken?

You were mistaken. Sadly, there is still a lot of non-16x9 material, even during prime time.

That's what I was afraid of...lame. Oh well, I guess if the future holds only 16x9 TVs and HDTV is going to become the norm...J6P is gonna be pissed w/ those black bars on the left and right...LOL.

Some of those are not HD at all. They are upconverted by the network or your local station. I don't think any Survivor-type reality show has been in HD yet.

J6P probably watches non-16x9 material in stretch mode.

Yeah it does suck to have to do this. However my Panny 47X54 does a really nice job of "stretching" 4X3 material across the screen. However, when I switch back and forth from HD 16x9 material to SD 4x3 stretched, you can notice the difference.

I can't wait until EVERYTHING is 16x9 and HD!!! Probably several years down the road.

True...im sure the equipment for filming/editing Survivor/Amazing Race in HD is too expensive/too cumbersome for the various locations. Someday though!

As far as the topic, some 4x3 shows are HD though (the Simpsons and Family Guy). They just arent 16x9.

Most shows that are 4x3 though are digital broadcasts only (non-HD). Most HD programming is 16x9.

Are you sure? If so, can you provide a source?

Aside from the snippets of Seinfeld from the NBC special, I'm not aware of any pillarboxed 4x3, high-definition TV shows (not counting movies like Gone with the Wind) that have aired.

The Simpsons and Family Guy are not HD. They are standard-definition. Since HD itself is natively 16:9, any TV shows intended for broadcast in HD will be framed for 16:9.

So what definition are the current syndicated Simpsons masters? The local Fox has an HD feed, and the Simpsons eps look way better than the regular channel. Or is it just that the regular one is probably overcompressed?

There may never come a time where "everything" is HD and 16x9. The regulations require digital broadcast, but that does not necesarily mean a HD digital broadcast.

What about some games that ESPN HD shows that are framed 4:3? They certainly look HD to me, but they have bars on the sides.

Speed and ease of distribution are much more important for syndicated programming than quality.

If you see the opaque bars, it's not in high-definition.

Upconverted standard definition programming will often look a lot better than its analog SD counterpart, but it's still not HD.

I have never seen a game that was SD (with the ESPN bars on the side) on ESPN HD that looked even remotely anywhere near HD quality. They always look horrible in comparison. Not that this should matter too much, but what size TV do you have?

Definitely SD, like Adam said.

Ok, I know this is extremely off topic, but I just had to chime in that if I had to pick 5 food/drinks that I hate the most, Red Vines and Mr. Pibb would be in the top 5.

You may have noticed that animation always looks pretty good. And it is likely upconverted, which should look better than the SD channel, but still not true HD.

I agree. But there are big differences in SD. I watched Australian Open tennis this year on the HD channel instead of regular ESPN2. It looked much better upconverted by ESPN than by my HDTivo.

Even though it's not HD, I still record Fox animation on my digital channel. I agree, both the picture (especially the picture) and sound are better than the satellite option.

I just thought I remembered Fox advertising the Simpsons in HD on their commercials (Family Guy too)...I did think it was odd that it was 4x3, but I figured they just wanted to keep some continuity with the older episodes. I thought it looked too good to be just a digital broadcast too. Oh well.

Im probably wrong. Sorry for the confusion.

That is likely it. The upconverting on ESPN HD of the SD games they show is a vast improvement over the standard channel.

Too bad they don't broadcast all of their NBA games in HD. Even their main game Sunday night between LA and Boston wasn't in HD, but it looked very good upconverted.

Yeah, I almost dont see the point in ESPN2 HD...they dont even broadcast everything on ESPN HD in actual HD.....oh well, maybe its just all a setup for the future.

Has anyone actually watched ESPN2 HD?? I havent seen it yet.

They have had some basketball in HD and some other stuff on ESPN2HD. They are still hampered by not having enough material in HD in the first place. Don't know why they needed a 2nd HD channel at this time, just not enough content.

Continuing with tennis as my example: Only one Grand Slam is in the USA, and the other countries are not doing HD as quickly as we are. (if you can call this quick) So only the US Open will be HD. Maybe some smaller USA tournaments. Tennis fans are hoping Wimbledon will jump to HD, but probably 2007 at the earliest.

Similar scenarios are playing out over every sport. Fox Net has finally built an HD truck dedicated to the MN/WI area, so there will be more games available for my locality this year and forward. Twins, college sports, etc.

ESPN isn't HD? It looks better than upconversion to me. Especially during Sportscenter, you can tell (I thought) which clips are SD and HD. If they were all upconverted SD, wouldn't they all look the same?

SC is now HD. It's all the other stuff that isn't. Any time you see the ESPN pillarboxing, it is SD.

I think he was talking about the clips during SC....some are HD and some are not.

Like you said, if its pillarboxed, then its SC.