Network broadcast screen ratio question
 

Of the network programs that are broadcast in high definition, are any of them presented with screen ratios other than 4:3?

Thanks

?? not following completely... but most... or well, every show, to the best of my knowledge that's prodcast in HD is 16X9 (fills the screen on a widescreen TV). And yes, you get more picture that way of course... and it's wonderful, just wonderful. :D

HD is broadcast in 16x9. While some tv shows may be shot in 4:3, they are cropped and shown in 16x9 (zoomed).

Thanks for your answers!

Actually.. only some of the primetime shows are actually widescreen. Most of the shows are shown in their native ratio (4:3) with black bars on the sides.

The ones that do fill up the screen, usually say at the beginning (High definition broadcast) .

Titantv.com has a better list of which programming is in HDTV. For sunday alone i can recite

beauty and beast - abc
alias - abc
smallville - wb
boomtown - nbc
law and order CI - nbc
American Dreams - nbc

Thanks for the info and the link Darthkim.

Since I'm looking into the purchase of a widescreen HTDV I was curious as to whether or not widescreen HDTV owners are...

A. Actually seeing more picture on the sides because of the wider 16:9 ratio
B. Actually seeing less picture because the image is blown up but cropped at the top and bottom
C. Or just seeing the same thing that the 4:3 public is seeing (unless they are stretching the picture to fit their widescreen.)

So based on what you all have told me it sounds like B. and C. are the case. Do you agree?

Really, I'm already sold on widescreen because I primarily watch DVDs, but I thought widescreen broadcast TV would be a big bonus.

Now if I could just correct my typo in the subject line...
:blush:

This year alone, there's been an explosion of HDTV programming. I think all of CBS' scripted programming in primetime is in HDTV, a lot of NBC and CBS and ABC is also in HDTV. Only Fox is holding out because they don't think we 'need' it; they think 480p is good enough for us (bastard!).

Hugo,

You really got me thinking on your question. I kept thinking to myself...

"in HD you would see more because it is cropped in Standard Definition (SD)"

But here it goes..


I have noticed that in the primetime shows that are advertised as being in High Definition, they tend to be letterboxed on Standard definition (with the bars on top and bottom). Assuming that, if one was to watch the program in HD, you wouldn't really be seing anything "more" per se because people with regular sets would see it only smaller and less detailed.

Shows that come to mind are boomtown and the practive

This applies to DVD's as well, as a majority of dvd will letterbox the movie if it is not displayed on a 16:9 widescreen Tv. You aren't missing out... except that the displayed image is smaller.


But i do have to say that i've seen some shows that are in high definition, when switching to the SD feed, there was stuff missing.. (Friends, dawson's creek, i think most WB shows)

now as to judge if that is important....eh... i dunno..

But I do know that i don't miss the detail and size =)

Hope this sort of helps. I would definitely advise seeing a dealer during prime time hours.. to kind of get a feel of what it looks like.