What’s the point?
If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, I mean hi-definition channels running standard-definition shows. This isn’t something like running SD shows from 1995, mind you, I mean recent shows which air, otherwise, in hi-def.
For example, TBS HD is airing My Name Is Earl. But they’re airing the 4:3 version at a stretched aspect ratio. The show is filmed in high definition, and aired in hi-def on NBC. Cartoon Network HD labels The Clone Wars as “Available in Hi-Definition”, and yet runs the show at a stretched 4:3 aspect. Same with The Venture Brothers, the third season at least, which is drawn in an HD ratio and is even on blu-ray.
It seems that Turner does this on all their channels that aren’t CNN, for some reason. TNT airs originals in HD, at least, but plenty of other shows are stretched and are fully headache inducing.
EVERYTHING on Cartoon network gets the treatment of stretched ratios. Okay, that may be wrong, there could be some of the CN:Real abomination not being stretched (exception for Destroy Build Destroy, which has the best title…ever). But right now, Ultimate Avengers 2 is on. Again, a movie mastered in 16:9, run in 4:3 stretch. To make it worse, CNHD doesn’t just stretch, they zoom. CNHD actually crops the top and bottom of any 4:3 show to an extent, in addition to stretching. This may apply to TBS HD, I haven’t checked because my brain is already swelling.
Okay, I checked. It does. They’re airing Men In Black right now, 4:3, stretched/cropped. What the fuck, y’all?
Why? Why not just preserve the ratio properly? People who want a stretched image are extremely rare, and most televisions have the option to stretch the image anyway. Why make your channel unwatchable by the majority of HDTV owners?
I don’t see why aspect ratios are so complicated, but local stations do apparently. In Phoenix, mind you, not Nowhere, Arkansas. Routinely, footage which is 16:9 is shown at 4:3 and vice versa. I’ve seen times when footage was formatted for 16:9, but was run through the program to process 4:3 for 16:9 ratios, compressing the image horizontally until it looked like a strip of paper. Or a 5×8 photograph, run the other way so that it fills the screen, ending in a 8×13 picture of one amazingly fat person. Alternately, a healthy looking Olsen twin or slightly less mega-chinned Heidi Montag.
Television and competence clearly don’t mix.
6 comments ↓
Ugh…stretched? Seriously? If they’re not gonna show the 16:9 they could at least show it 4:3 with the sidebars…at least then it won’t look all distorted.
They could, they should, but they don’t. I think they fail to realize that while watching something that’s 16:9 on 4:3 looks a little distorted but is easily adjusted to, watching something 4:3 in 16:9 is tremendously obvious. We tend to notice stretching more than compressing, it seems, particularly when it’s an uneven stretch. There’s a STRONG tendency toward fisheye on the feeds.
i understand what you mean, im the same way about music, being a artist i hate using audio which is in well i wont go into depth but yea.
Youtubed? Let’s say youtubed.
Are you sure that *they* are stretching it, and it’s not your TV doing that because it’s set to 16:9?
Quite! It’s a question worth asking, but it’s most certainly Turner. For one, there’s plenty of channels which air SD content on HD channels that maintain an aspect ratio, and I don’t get stretching on SD channels anyway.
As an example, Comedy Central’s programming is mostly 480i. They preserve the aspect ratio with two nice thick black bars. But most Turner channels broadcast at a stretched ratio, zoomed.
There’s a few Discovery channels that do that too, with standard def content, particularly The Science Channel. Rather than stretch, however, they just run a tighter zoom which is obvious when peoples’ names are visibly cut off when displayed on the bottom of the screen.
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