sky hd.CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN?????

[anka06]

I got sky hd last week as id had enough of virgin. So far we are very happy,but the other night i went to watch Simpsons and Futurama in HD and the picture was cut off at each side?? i tried messing with all my settings....but no joy. Does anyone know why this is????

Also ive got a Samsung series 4, 40inch,i was messing around trying to get the best pic possible and i noticed in the detailed settings there was no facility to change the HDMI black level,since im watching thru a HDMI cable shouldnt i be able to change the black level??

Any help and advice to get the best pictures in SD and HD would be very much appreciated.
Thankyou

 

[newboy2008]

If it has black bars then its not an Hd broadcast.You will find this if you press the info button.Also it will say "Sky 1" not "Sky 1 HD" in the top left hand corner.All Hd broadcasts are widescreen.If you want full screen,the SD channel will be.

 

[andy1249]

I got sky hd last week as id had enough of virgin. So far we are very happy,but the other night i went to watch Simpsons and Futurama in HD and the picture was cut off at each side?? i tried messing with all my settings....but no joy. Does anyone know why this is????

Rather annoyingly , Sky choose to broadcast these programs in 4:3 mode upscaled , meaning that your TV gets a 1080i signal that is actually made up of the 4:3 picture with black sidebars and no amount of messing with settings can fix this.

Its best to actually watch these programs on the SD channel.

Thankfully they dont do this with that many programs , and its only basic animation anyway , no real benefit to watching these in HD at all.

 

[Matt306]

It's because those programs were originally shot in 4:3 and Sky have decided to broadcast them in their original format rather than stretch them to 16:9. Some people find it annoying, but I'd rather watch it in its original aspect ratio, as it's a faff to change the AR on most sets, people have become used to watching TV stretched out. Ask yourself this, would you stretch a movie to remove the black bars top and bottom?

Altering the contrast on your TV will afffect the black level, brightness the white. You may need to play with both until you get the desired effect. This is best done with a test card (I believe the BBC have an HD version of test card F on during their promo loop) or calibration disc.

 

[Bachstrad]

Rather annoyingly , Sky choose to broadcast these programs in 4:3 mode upscaled , meaning that your TV gets a 1080i signal that is actually made up of the 4:3 picture with black sidebars and no amount of messing with settings can fix this.

Its best to actually watch these programs on the SD channel.

Only if you like to watch in 'Stretchyvision'!

The Simpsons is 4:3 format!

ATB

Max

 

[Broadz]

I got sky hd last week as id had enough of virgin. So far we are very happy,but the other night i went to watch Simpsons and Futurama in HD and the picture was cut off at each side?? i tried messing with all my settings....but no joy. Does anyone know why this is????

Do you mean that it was a 4:3 picture rather than a widescreen picture? Because if you do, that is what it should have been.

The Simpsons is made in standard definition (not HD) and in 4:3, so the black bars are present and have been manually added by Sky prior to transmission to stop your TV from distorting the picture when it stretches the picture out to fill your TV screen.

If you had been able to stretch the picture out to fill the screen with no black bars then you would have been watching a horribly distorted picture which would not have even been standard definition (the technical term is either fattyvision or stretchyvision) and the HD police would have had to come round to your house and remove your HD TV, replacing it with a black and white 14" portable without even a remote control (as I'm sure they will be doing to Andy1249 in the not-too-distant future). So, thank Sky for preventing you from committing such a faux pas.

If however this is not what you are questioning, and your problem is something else entirely, then sorry, I can't answer your question.

 

[newboy2008]

you would have been watching a horribly distorted picture which would not have even been standard definition (the technical term is either fattyvision or stretchyvision) and the HD police would have had to come round to your house and remove your HD TV, replacing it with a black and white 14" portable without even a remote control. So, thank Sky for preventing you from committing such a faux pas.

 

[andy1249]

Only if you like to watch in 'Stretchyvision'!

Its the simsons mate : its only a cartoon !

 

[mattclarkie]

I do get annoyed by King of the Hill HD being 4:3. They make the bloody programme in HD but not 16:9. Come-on.

 

[Bachstrad]

Its the simsons mate : its only a cartoon !

Have you seen 'only' cartoons that are made in HD? Cars, for example will blow you away!

To each his own, but any 4:3 material, cartoon or otherwise, that's 'stretched' to fit the screen looks naff to me!

ATB

Max

 

[Nivek TT]

Stretch-o-vision is evil! Thanks to Sky for showing the Simpsons quite correctly!

And thanks for abandoning the silly slightly cropped way they used to show Simpsons.

 

[Ronan]

The Simpsons finally making high-def debut - Engadget HD

 

[andy1249]

Have you seen 'only' cartoons that are made in HD? Cars, for example will blow you away!

Oh please , you hardly think Im comparing basic hand drawn cell animation like the simpsons to state of the art computer graphics !

The simpsons is never going to be reference video material , it hardly matters if its stretched a little bit .... I dont think its entirely obvious thats its in HD either , its not exactly demo material.

 

[Bachstrad]

Oh please , you hardly think Im comparing basic hand drawn cell animation like the simpsons to state of the art computer graphics !

The simpsons is never going to be reference video material , it hardly matters if its stretched a little bit .... I dont think its entirely obvious thats its in HD either , its not exactly demo material.

Sorry, I didn't realise you had different categories for 'only' cartoons!

However, I still maintain that even "basic hand drawn cell animation" looks naff stretched if it was originally produced in 4:3 format!

ATB

Max

 

[Broadz]

The simpsons is never going to be reference video material , it hardly matters if its stretched a little bit .... I dont think its entirely obvious thats its in HD either , its not exactly demo material.

Surely the question is - why would you want it stretched (if only a little bit)? Presumably you own a high definition television, and subscribe to Sky HD, which would suggest that you are interested in watching TV programmes and movies in the best picture quality possible. To then prefer to watch it stretched out in a distorted fashion just seems - well - daft. Why bother with Sky HD if you don't want decent pictures? Do you stretch other 4:3 SD programmes when watching via HDMI - G.O.L.D., Paramount Comedy Channel, Sky Sports News etc? Or is it only cartoons where you like to make the picture unwatchable?

Do you stretch 2.35:1 ratio movies on the high definition movie channels to remove black bars from the top and bottom of the screen, even though it makes everybody look like either Olive Oyl or Stan Laurel, when it's really Mandy Dingle and Oliver Hardy?

 

[Shaun666]

Oh please , you hardly think Im comparing basic hand drawn cell animation like the simpsons to state of the art computer graphics !

The simpsons is never going to be reference video material , it hardly matters if its stretched a little bit .... I dont think its entirely obvious thats its in HD either , its not exactly demo material.

Irrelevant. If it's made in 4:3 then show it in 4:3.

 

[andy1249]

Presumbaly you own a high definition television, and subscribe to Sky HD, which would suggest that you are interested in watching TV programmes and movies in the best picture quality possible.

Indeed I have got a HDTV , rather new plasma in fact , and I would rather not be watching a high contrast program like a cartoon with large bars down the side while Im running it in.
( I know burn in is mostly in the past , but Im just being careful )

I addition I didnt subscribe to Sky HD to increase the quality of a program like the simpsons , come on now ?
Im not saying that anyone should distort the picture on Movie channels or anything , but in some cases its just hard to care ... who lies awake at night wondering if homer simpsons dimensions were correct

 

[Shaun666]

Indeed I have got a HDTV , rather new plasma in fact , and I would rather not be watching a high contrast program like a cartoon with large bars down the side while Im running it in.
( I know burn in is mostly in the past , but Im just being careful )

I addition I didnt subscribe to Sky HD to increase the quality of a program like the simpsons , come on now ?
Im not saying that anyone should distort the picture on Movie channels or anything , but in some cases its just hard to care ... who lies awake at night wondering if homer simpsons dimensions were correct

If you want to watch things distorted on your tv then you're free to do that by using one of the many "zoom" modes on your tv but why should everyone else have to put up with it just cos it's what you want ?

 

[kevandalice]

Ask yourself this, would you stretch a movie to remove the black bars top and bottom?

The people who ask the question that op asked actually probably would!

Edit - and andy1249

 

[karlos82]

need help / advice.
got sky-hd running via hdmi & optical to onkyo tx-sr 876.
keep getting clicking on three front channels.
any ideas.
thanks

 

[derek500]

As this question seems to crop up on here on a weekly basis, can we please have a 'sticky' titled "Why does The Simpsons on Sky1 HD have black bars either side", with a simple explanation.

 

[kevmarshall]

As this question seems to crop up on here on a weekly basis, can we please have a 'sticky' titled "Why does The Simpsons on Sky1 HD have black bars either side", with a simple explanation.

Three cheers for Derek500......................... do a simple SEARCH before starting this all over again!

 

[choddo2006]

need help / advice.
got sky-hd running via hdmi & optical to onkyo tx-sr 876.
keep getting clicking on three front channels.
any ideas.
thanks

Suggest you start a new thread for that.

p.s. I love my 4:3 Simpsons in 16:9 lard-vision so much that I deliberately horizontally zoom the HD version by 33% using my vp50*. Ha.




* may not actually be true. But I really don't care if Homer looks even fatter than usual.

 

[mattclarkie]

Personally I prefer to watch 4:3 material 16:9, the level of stretch is frankly not noticeable on any 16:9 TV I have had.

I would never watch a feature film not OAR, but 4:3 annoys me because I don't like 50% of the screen at the sides being wasted, it's something to do with my peripheral vision being very powerful but I can't focus on a small square and find the pillarboxing distracting.


If someone wants to stretch then fine, I did hate it when Sky did the awful 14:9 stretch, it was poorly down.