This is from NBC and their presentation today.

``The West Wing '' will begin airing in a 16-by-9 letterbox format this fall, following in the footsteps of ``ER. ``

This is awesome.

Matt

my prayers have been answered!!! screw er!! this is the best show on tv (or nbc at least) and now will be shown in the best format. now this along with my brand new digital cable next week will make for a great season 3. yippee!!!!!!!

Yeah, I agree with you. ER was my favorite show since it started until I started watching the West Wing during the summer before the second season.

Matt

Well ER is my Fave, and i lvoe the letterboxing. It'll be interesting to see in syndication outside of primetime.

But ER isnt' 16:9 ratio is it?

Its about 16:9. Remember 16:9 is like 1.85:1, which is what ER is. It wouldn't be 2.35:1 because that might be a little to strange for common television viewers.

Matt

Okay, i thought 1.85:1 sounded alot more like it.

2.35 wouldnt' last a day... I bet there are still some people at home trying to fix there set when ER comes on

"Hey Pa, I keep seeing the darkness on the tv. Get your gun and shoot it"

LOL.

Matt

Nice, now only if they broadcast Ed in 16:9, then I'll be happy.

By 16:9 do you mean letterboxed or in 16:9 HD? If it's letterboxed, who cares? It looks like **** on a 16x9 HDTV if you have to blow it up and it doesn't fill the screen for people with 4x3 tvs, so how is this good news? If NBC would join the other networks and actually make 16x9 HD shows maybe I'd be excited. It's like announcing Star Wars is coming out on dvd, but non-anamorphic. Great, but how is it better?

I have a 4:3 TV and I'm happy that its letterboxed. I dont give a crap about the black bars, which you seem to have a problem with, so I will enjoy the letterboxed image.

Matt

His issue isn't with the aspect ratio chosen; it's with the signal used to make the broadcast. If NBC broadcasts it as a 4:3 image with letterboxing making the 4:3 image a 1.78:1 picture, on a a 16:9 HDTV it will have black bars ALL AROUND (be 'windowboxed') unless the TV blows the image up, and doing that makes the picture look like crap. So the picture area is SMALLER on sets not designed for that aspect ratio, and EITHER SMALLER OR WORSE LOOKING on sets of that aspect ratio. Is this what you call progress?

I thought the wider aspect ratio on ER was a nice touch compositionally, but I appreciate others' anger at NBC for not broadcasting in HD.

Thanks dave955. I wasn't saying I'm against letterboxing. I was buying letterbox VHS for years before dvds came out. I have a 16x9 HDTV & like dave said, there's no good way to watch a letterboxed tv show. Non-anamorphic dvds look 20 times better than letterboxed tv. All of CBS' series, about 1/3 of FOX, but only 2 of ABC's shows are in HD. NBC is THE worst for HD programming with only Leno being in HD. So instead of acting like a letterboxed show is some great event, they should get with the technology. HBO started showing The Sopranos letterboxed this year simultaneously with HBO2(P?) showing it full screen. The reason they had a letterboxed version was because it was being shown in 16x9 HD on the HBO HD station. So to shoot the show 16x9 but not HD is pretty pointless. It's not like it's better for people with 16x9 or 4x3 tvs.

Oh okay, I'm sorry, I was just confused. Yeah, I understand your argument, there were others who were talking about it regarding ER a while ago.

Matt

Actually, 16:9 is 1.78:1. It will just have little black bars on top and bottom, much closer to the 4:3 TV than the letterbox (2.35:1) format.

HBO also puts the Sopranos on DVD in 16x9 and makes it anamorphic (I think) - that makes a big difference too.

In addition to going 16x9 this fall, West Wing will also have much better paid staff. The four actors who were holding out will see their salary increase from $30,000 per episode to $75,000 per episode. But that's still less than the 6-figure salaries that Martin Sheen & Rob Lowe are getting.

In comparison, the cast of Friends is each getting $750,000 per episode. That's 10 times what the West Wing actors are getting paid, and Friends is a half hour show while West Wing is an hour-long show. The power of syndication-ability.