On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 8:04 AM, Diner <[email protected]> wrote: > Actually, it's been that way on Fox for years - probably since the DTV > transition in 2009, or at least not long afterwards. I have a cathode ray > TV, and I always have to switch to my HD DVR in order to see the score when > I watch games on Fox. >
IIRC, Fox spent far more than the other networks in the time before the digital switchover getting its affiliates and as many cable/satellite operators as possible equipped to transmit and receive Active Format Description coding so that downconverted SD feeds could switch back and forth between letterboxed and center-cut automatically depending on the format of what was being broadcast, so I think they've been working for a while off of the assumption that if they want something to be seen widescreen, it's going to be seen widescreen. But otherwise, the question of picture size seems to be a bit of a mess. For NBC Sports, whether things are 4:3-friendly seems to depend on what sport you're watching (football: yes, soccer: no). "ESPN on ABC" is formatted for center-cut 4:3 even though ESPN on ESPN was one of the first non-premium networks on my cable system to go to 24/7 letterboxing and directors will often let the action fill the whole width of a 16:9 screen. CBS seems to be far more consistent and conservative than the rest about never going outside of the 4:3 safe zone in both sports and entertainment programming. -- David J. Lynch [email protected] -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
