Toshiba 36ZP18P 4:3 Analogue Picture Size

[stephenorn]

I have a 36ZP18P which is wonderful. When watching with my Nokia ITV Digital box there is no problem with picture sizing. The screen adjusts perfectly for either a widescreen or 4:3 transmission - with the 4:3 transmission always filling the full height but not width of the screen (as expected).

However, recently, when watching on analogue I have noticed that the 4:3 screen (when using the 4:3 mode) does not fill the full height of the screen. In effect I am left with a large black border all the way around the picture. This isn't always the case and it varies by channel - alhtough never on Channel 5. (I have checked the vertical sizing but this is not an option I can change on the 4:3 mode)

I phoned John Lewis service to complain and they told me it is the way the image is broadcast and not a fault with the set. Therefore they won't send an engineer. Can anyone confirm if this is the case. I would always use the ITV digital box but it makes an annoying high ptich squeel and sometimes I just have to turn it off!!!

yes jl are right.

[stevelup]

Hi

When watching analogue "widescreen" broadcasts, they are more often than not transmitted in 14:9.

If you select 14:9 mode, you will get the desired effect (full height picture with (smaller) borders at the left and right).

Regards,

Steve

ITV I believe are the only ones to support 14:9 but you can force this aspect ratio for all channels of course. It is the broadcasters fault though so theres nothing wrong with your TV.

[stevelup]

Hi

All the BBC channels broadcast widescreen material in 14:9 on analogue.

Regards,

Steve

Originally posted by NeoBlade
ITV I believe are the only ones to support 14:9 but you can force this aspect ratio for all channels of course. It is the broadcasters fault though so theres nothing wrong with your TV.

On terrestial tv, BBC, ITV, Ch4 and Ch5 all use 14:9. On DSAT, Sky 1, the UKTV group channels and a few others use 14:9.

Meh... Talk about being behind the times >_< Sorry about that... I use Sky Digi a lot more than terrestrial sorry. At least its nice to see broadcasters supporting the format... Would be better if BBC News and that supported true widescreen since there are still borders on the left and right.

Originally posted by NeoBlade
Would be better if BBC News and that supported true widescreen since there are still borders on the left and right.

It does. The BBC uses widescreen where widescreen is available. However, a lot of news is sourced from outside the BBC and from around the world and that still uses 4:3. BBC then crop this to 14:9 to reduce the impact of the black bars to people that dislike them (how people prefer cropped pictures to black bars i can never understand).

Hmm.. I was watching BBC News last night and it still had borders on the left and right. This was during the BBC newsread so it wasn't an external news source footage... Odd that.

BBC News 24 and BBC news broadcasts on DSAT have been in anamorphic widescreen for some time now. BBCNews24 is always in anamorphic widescreen.

The newsread, in particular, are always in 16:9. Its just the outside broadcasts that tend not to be.

I can't recall yesterdays news broadcast.

Hmm... Could just be my set then, but its been configured correctly for 16:9 viewing using a THX disk. Odd but the bars don't bother me anyway since I'm one of those peeps that like to keep the original aspect ratio at all costs.

I'm the same. 4:3 for 4:3 and wide for 16:9. None of this zoom and crop business.

I made a point of watching BBC rather than Ch4 news and i have flipped over to news24 a couple of times and in all cases it has been in 16:9 apart from the usual outside broadcasts which are cropped to 14:9 (in the 16:9 frame).

I just checked again.. Everythings fine >_< I bet you think I've lost the plot or something lol. Yet to check it via DVB but it doesn't bother me anyway... The only thing that does is the seemingly decreasing bandwidth offered on these digital channels... Only Sky News looks the part.

BBC News 24 used to really look the part. Nowadays it is over compressed and at times the quality is disgusting.

Some of the US sourced material is almost unwatchable because of the distortions.

DoubleDoom, I know mate. I was complaining about the drop in bitrates a good few months ago... They did it to make room for the Athletics and the quality has dropped badly. The goverment wants all of us to own DVB TVs by 2005... Yet they're not helping by bringing the prices down for TVs or by not funding the BBC a bit more to keep its bitrates high.

Even though we pay the BBC the license fee I can't say that the quality of programming has increased IMO. They've lost a lot of sports over the past few years and now we would probably be watching live bowls as the main attraction. Documentaries have shifted from the BBC to ITV or CH4 and now theres little left on the BBC to keep me interested. I guess the drop in quality was the last straw for me but if the BBC thinks that it can keep on degrading the bitrate (they've done so twice already) then they are going to loose a lot of viewers...

Rant over ^_^