[Mark Greaves]

Can anyone tell me why sometimes programmes on Channel 4 make my Sony KV28LS35 TV jump into "Zoom" format? Recent examples have been, "Truly Maddly Deeply" (Sat, 11th Jan, 22:00) and "Dawsons Creek" (Sun, 12th, 12:45). I don't have Sky, Cable or Freeview, we are just talking old fashioned analogue terrestrial TV here.

I normally have the aspect ratio set to "Smart" so that when I play a DVD "Wide" mode is automatically selected and also for broadcast TV it's a good compromise for 4:3 because I prefer not to have the black bars at the sides.

I would have thought that if these Ch4 programmes are being broadcast as widescreen then my TV should jump into "Wide" mode? I think I remember this happening once for a film on ITV (maybe one of the Star Wars). Is something wrong with my TV, or CH4, or both or am I just confused (most likely!) ??

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer enlightenment!

Cheers.

Mark

[steve1056]

Mark,

I have 2 Sony's (32FX20 and 24LS35) and they do exactly the same. I believe it's just the way that Channel 4 show their widescreen films as the height of characters in the films look OK to me on the Zoom setting. If you try manually switching to Wide mode, they look squashed.

Steve

Originally posted by Mark Greaves
I would have thought that if these Ch4 programmes are being broadcast as widescreen then my TV should jump into "Wide" mode?

No. Never.

"Wide" is for anamorphic widescreen ONLY (specifically designed for widescreen TVs, as you get with DVDs - many, but sadly not all).

Ch4 widescreen broadcasts on analogue terrestrial are broadcast as letterboxed widescreen and include a switching signal so your TV can zoom them up to fill the screen as much as possible.

There are no anamorphic widescreen broadcasts on analogue terrestrial.

You can get a Freeview box for about £100 (some even less than this, some more) for digital terrestrial. Then you can watch lots of programmes in anamorphic widescreen