RTE Widescreen -> Too wide?

gimpotronitus

Hi There,

I have just bought a 32 inch HD-Ready LCD TV. I notice that RTE now broadcast in widescreen. The problem is that even when my TV is set on "Wide" or "Auto Wide" mode, the image broadcast is "too wide" for my TV i.e. there is definitely some of the image on either side that I cant see.

Whats going on? When is a widescreen TV not a widescreen TV? I get RTE through SKY Digital.

thanks.

Lump

RTE are probably not checking the Titles are within Title safe and that active picture is not witin Active Picture safe. Some TV's drift quite a bit, but if it's new, that should be a problem, have you tried all the options? Is there not a 16:9 option, or 14:9 option? I think "wide" is for use with Feature films off DVD that re 1.85:1 (Wider then widescreen)

John

mickymg2003

I've never had that problem but i have noticed that a lot of movies they broadcast are not i widescreen but things like the news is!!!I find it annoying when they do that.

Mossy Monk

have you set the Sky box up for 16:9 broadcasts? sounds to me like you have stretched 4:3 images

on my tv there is no problem with the RTÉ picture in 16:9

John R

It sounds to me like the OP is just watching analogue 4:3 zoomed in to fill his widescreen TV.

I think most people do not properly understand all the options and what can/cannot be done. Every time I go to my father's house they are watching 4:3 programmes stretched to fill a WS tv. A world inhabited by short fat people, drives me mad.

Lump

Well he's getting RTE from Sky Digital, so I still stick with my original Diagnosis.

John

Skyuser

Ya he can be getting RTE from Sky, but he might not have changed his settings in Services to 16:9. So all his widescreen broadcasts would be stretched.

radiospan

Have ye seen the new ads on RTE explaining that your TV should be properly set for widescreen?

Seems a bit pointless to me, they show how a face looks using a few wrong configurations, and then show the right one, saying: "This is how the face should look on your TV".

But they seem to forget that if your TV (or Sky box) is set wrong in the first place...

Telefís

Well they can't account for every eejit out there now

What is ridiculous about their widescreen promotion though is the image used for instruction:



Could they have chosen a worse subject if they tried?! A big fat lump of a man sprawling about in a chair! It's such a pathetically poor subject that your man actually looks correctly configured in compressed 4:3 mode he's that fat! Admittedly not in the images above, but when the ad is broadcast it appears as such. What fool decided this would be a good sample image?!

Why didn't they use a well-known example that everyone would instantly recognise to be incorrect, like a mid-shot of Pat on the Late Late, or other studio programmes. They could have made a fun ad out of these more conventional subjects that would have explained things so much more easily.

And the voiceover shifts the blame onto the viewer, as if we're the ones at fault. Yes this is largely the case with people watching ridiculously stretched images, but it comes across as a smarmy scoff at stupid Joe Public.
The fact that the majority of viewers in Ireland have no way to even view RTÉ's widescreen broadcasts adds insult to injury.
A thoroughly unstatisfactory campaign all round.

Tusky

thar is absolutely hilarious. RTE are a bunch of twats!

parasite

Telef&#237 wrote: »

... eloquent rant ...

they were also running that ad when they were still fúcking up the widescreen switching on sky, patronising twats

Lump

Circles should look round Look for wheels.... or just that fat man

John

Miguel_Sanchez

Don't RTE broadcast in 14:9 as opposed to 16:9?

Mossy Monk

on an analogue signal yes. through Sky Digital and NTL Digital it is 16:9. not sure about Chorus

gimpotronitus

ah...DOH!

Yeah okay sounds like I need to set the sky box to 16:9!

thanks all.

Telefís

They broadcast in 4:3 on analogue - sending a 14:9 letterboxed image

Sparky

is it just me or does the correct image still look quite squashed.

Lump

Telef&#237 wrote: »

They broadcast in 4:3 on analogue - sending a 14:9 letterboxed image

Or 14L12 for the Tech code . Back of thread, that image used to tell you what's what is wrong... The Squashed image has parts cut off.... In reality, the entire fram would be squashed into the size.... RTE suck

John

Lump

Should look like this http://members.boards.ie/lump/pic_align.jpg

John

Telefís

And even then it's still incorrect in that it isn't a 4:3 shape! (though I know what you mean)
Indeed none of these images:



are correct!

Since when do you have a stretched 4:3 image in a 4:3 frame?
Since when do you have a compressed 4:3 image in a 4:3 frame?
Since when do you have a framed 4:3 image in a 4:3 frame?

Not one of these pictures is an accurate representation of an image on a televison screen.

Lump

Yea, I didn't take the time to add the black at the edges That'd be too much effort

John

Quinnsey

The worst is when they stretch out their 4:3 late night movies to 16:9 without realising it. They did this with Fantastic Voyage for the first 20 minutes before someone in the studio woke up and noticed it.

Lump

He he, if they're anything like the BBC, it's normally none technical people who work in the MIA (Media Injest Area) Although do RTE still use tape play out? I remember shortly after the selling of BBC Broadcast to McQuarie bank, there was massive problems in the broadcasting, the staff where the same but something went wrong one day, and in the course of the first 5 minutes of a programme, it switched from 4:3 to 16:9 to 14:9 to some random arcing preset, before jumping back to 16:9... big claim form went in there I'm sure

John

Sparky

My version, they way RTE should of done it.

Some people have their tvs set to this

a 16.9 image on a 4.3 screen (notice the skyone logo and the squashy face)

while some people have theirs set like this


This is what widescreen should look like on a widescreen tv


and this is what 4.3 should look like on a 4.3 television.


I am using a 16.9 tv to show what all images look like.

recipio

Hi gimpotronius, I'm also thinking of getting a 32 " lcd .Hitachi and Sony seem highly recommended--can I ask what you bought and what you think of lcd's in general.

Telefís

Great stuff Sparky_S - exactly as it should be.

gary_s

Sparky_S wrote:

is it just me or does the correct image still look quite squashed.

No, I think it does too! I don't think it's any more "correct" than the left-most image...

Mossy Monk

Sparky_S wrote:

is it just me or does the correct image still look quite squashed.

wouldnt be the first thing RTÉ got arseways
your pictures get it spot on though

Sparky

recipio wrote:

Hi gimpotronius, I'm also thinking of getting a 32 " lcd .Hitachi and Sony seem highly recommended--can I ask what you bought and what you think of lcd's in general.

Ill add my input also into this.
I have a 32" samsung LE32R41B.

First week i felt the image was to blocky, but this was due to bad settings and that some sky channels are highly compressed, but after a while the images started to blend in better, i was later informed that it takes atleast 6 weeks for a lcd to "break in", now the images are really good, and dvd through my samsung HD850 via HDMI is pin perfect.

And it handles HD very well.
Only drawback about LCD is the contrast, the blacks are a bit brighter than a crt, but you get used to it.

Cheers people for the complements on my version of how 16:9 should be

gimpotronitus

Hi there,

I bought a Samsung LE32R51B, here: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313313&cks=PRL (though the price has gone up since I bought it?!?).

Really nice TV, looks great. The default settings need to be tweaked as sparky said to get the optimum picture but I am very happy with it. Watching a DVD on it is cool! Cant wait to get my surround sound system.....

Sparky

gimpotronitus wrote:

Hi there,

I bought a Samsung LE32R51B, here: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313313&cks=PRL (though the price has gone up since I bought it?!?).

Really nice TV, looks great. The default settings need to be tweaked as sparky said to get the optimum picture but I am very happy with it. Watching a DVD on it is cool! Cant wait to get my surround sound system.....

Id seriously recommend a Samsung HD850 for dvd's as it upscales them and they are pin sharp. It goes through HDMI and its top notch.

recipio

Thanks for that. Every review seems to recommend a different lcd. Guess the only thing to do is hoof it to the shops and actually look at them !

doh.ie

Nice one, Sparky_S - you should probably send those to RTE and give them an idea of how to do the promo correctly for the next time it's being revised.