BBC are showing World Cup in 4/3

DaveH

Found out on Football365.com that BBC are showing the matches on 4/3 not 16/9. The other coverage anlaysis etc, will be in 16/9. I hope to god RTE show it in 16/9.

carrolls

As long as 80-90% of televisions in the world are 4/3, I think all world tv events will be 4/3.

DMC

Originally posted by DaveH
Found out on Football365.com that BBC are showing the matches on 4/3 not 16/9. The other coverage anlaysis etc, will be in 16/9. I hope to god RTE show it in 16/9.

That is a pity. The studio stuff from London will be done in widescreen, but not the match. If BBC are doing 4:3 for the matches, RTÉ will be too.
It was before Sky Digital's time, but the last world cup in France, (produced under the auspices of the EBU, not this time however) that all coverage was produced in widescreen.

I think that this time, as the EBU are not involved in the production, as they are not the rights holders, that production values by the hosts could be poor. Remember, in 1994, the EBU moved mountains to produce the matches themselves, as they couldn't trust the American TV networks, as they have never done big soccer tournaments before.

I hope for the viewer that the World Cup will be good, but summat tells me that this is not a trusted setup.... I do hope I'm wrong.

ShaneOC

The whole point about digital television is the versatility of the thing. Everone can be kept happy. There are basically three camps.

1) Those with a 4:3 TV who want a full screen picture.
2) Those with a 4:3 TV who want a widescreen picture.
3) Those with a 16:9 TV who want a widescreen picture.

Sky's digiboxes support all of the above format if the program is broadcast in widescreen.

If the broadcast is 4:3 then only the first group are catered for.

colinsky

The whole point about digital television is the versatility of the thing. Everone can be kept happy. There are basically three camps.

1) Those with a 4:3 TV who want a full screen picture.
2) Those with a 4:3 TV who want a widescreen picture.
3) Those with a 16:9 TV who want a widescreen picture.

4) Those who want the picture to look like whatever framing the director intended, without anything being cut off, regardless of what the ratio happens to me.

Gadgie

Originally posted by colinsky


4) Those who want the picture to look like whatever framing the director intended, without anything being cut off, regardless of what the ratio happens to me.

And this is relevant here how?

Glenn

SRB

It's 4:3 simply because the broadcaster supplying the pictures uses 4:3, NTSC.

swoofer

Its all explained on here

http://www.eetuk.com/tech/news/OEG20020528S0023

gbcullen

Mossy Monk

widescreen is available but it will provide only 8 cameras per game. 4:3 on the other hand will have loads more. i can imagine the BBC broadcasting games with lovely bars standing each side of the picture :mad: and if the picture quality from some of the pre tournament games ar anything to go by the World Cup will look terrible :mad:

sceptre

Originally posted by Glennus


And this is relevant here how?

Glenn

Probably something to do with Stanley Kubrick. Not relevant methinks.

carrolls

The England/Cameroon friendly game on BBC looked dreadful when I expanded it to 4/3. In letterbox mode the top, bottom and sides were cut off. The picture quality was crap. The slightest movement was pixelated. If the same thing applies to the World Cup proper, I will watch it on RTE.

Gadgie

Originally posted by carrolls
The England/Cameroon friendly game on BBC looked dreadful when I expanded it to 4/3. In letterbox mode the top, bottom and sides were cut off. The picture quality was crap. The slightest movement was pixelated. If the same thing applies to the World Cup proper, I will watch it on RTE.

I'd advise watching it on RTÉ. The picture quality will be much better.

The BBC will probably pillarbox the 4:3 image so you will have black bars around the whole screen if you have your digibox set up to letterbox widescreen images. Plus, the BBC will most likely be broadcasting the same match on all it's regional variations, so the picture will become very blocky during periods with lots of movement as all channels will be competing for the limited bandwidth.

Glenn

Couch Potato

Black bars appear on side (shrinking to 4:3) when watching on widescreen tv but ...

If you press red on BBC for BBCi when you select the main match the black side bars disappear...