Sky Digital

[junderw2]

Why do some of the programmes broadcast on sky digital have thick black boarders to the left and right of the picture while other programmes dont ?

[Spellmaster]

Spellmaster. This 'answer' was not funny, not helpful, not clever, not welcome. Please do not post replies like this again. - AB Editor

[Tapirman]

Just in case this is a serious question, I'll try to help. I believe it's that some programmes cannot be shown correctly in Widescreen format (with a 16:9 screeen ratio) so the blank borders are inserted to keep the picture ratio to it's 4:3 original size.

[LeMarchand]

I am led to believe that this occurs when US shows, which are in NTSC format, have not been properly formatted for the PAL system, which we use.

[Headtime]

The widescreen picture is 16 units wide and 9 units high. And as Tapirman says, the ratio is called 16:9.

If you wanted to watch the older "aspect ratio" of 4:3 (4 units by 3 units) on a widescreen telly, the top and bottom of the image is chopped off and the image.enlarged.

Most archive programmes and those from foreign broadcasters are in the 4:3 format.

For a channel like BBC1 broadcast in widescreen on the digital platforms, the loss of picture information and degredation of quality in the process of coverting between 4:3 and 16:9 is deemed too high. So these programmes are broadcast as a 4:3 box within a 16:9 picture. Hence you get, thick black lines at either side of the picture. Or in Sports coverage annoying blue lines!

For a thorough guide try clicking http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/delivering_quality
/delivery_widescreen.shtml

[map08]

It's most noticable when you select widescreen in the digibox options - Skysports football matches are far better this way, but when ITV showed its European matches, the widescreen option left huge black borders