Picture Sizes on Television

Broadcasters on Virgin Media are handling the transition to widescreen differently. Viewers get the negatives every day but cannot affect the situation positively due to the absence of feedback channels. Hopefully this article will get through to the engineers and managers who can make a difference.

Content updated but incomplete on 27^th July 2009. Photos from December 2007 to February 2008.

Skip to the solution, if you are impatient.

Goal

All shows must be displayed usefully on all screens in all modes.

Glossary

Screen

The viewing surface. It need not be a traditional TV.

Show

Any broadcast, including:

programmes;
films;
newscasts;
credit sequences;
adverts;
and anything else.

4:3

The normal aspect ratio.

16:9

The widescreen aspect ratio.

Size

The ratio used by a screen or show.

Mode

Which display format the screen is using.

Problems

Some screens use 4:3. Others use 16:9.
Some shows use 4:3. Others use 16:9.
Some broadcasters wrap letterboxes around their shows.
Some broadcasters sometimes set the wrong aspect ratio for the show they are sending.
Digital TV boxes do not detect the aspect ratio of the screen they are connected to.
Some screens use special modes to adjust shows.

Screen Format (Mode)

Virgin TV has a TV display format setting:

It has the following 3 modes.

`16:9 Widescreen`

Sends all of a 4:3 picture but in a letterbox. (A 16:9 Letterbox mode.)
Sends all of a 16:9 picture. (The 16:9 Widescreen mode.)

`4:3 Letterbox`

Sends all of a 4:3 picture. (The 4:3 Normal mode.)
Sends all of a 16:9 picture but in a letterbox. (The 4:3 Letterbox mode.)

`4:3 Normal`

Sends all of a 4:3 picture. (The 4:3 Normal mode.)
Sends only the middle 4:3 portion of a 16:9 picture. (A 4:3 Cropped mode.)

You lose the left and right edge from widescreen shows in this mode. That means:

Thoughtful producers put nothing interesting at the edges of their shows.
Viewers of other shows miss interesting things from the edges.

Removing the 4:3 Normal mode seems a good first step towards tidying this mess.

Show Sizes

Filler Letterbox

Some broadcasters add a letterbox around their shows before they broadcast them. This is always unhelpful for 4:3 Shows and 16:9 Shows. It is helpful for other aspect ratios.

Eurosport Demonstrates What Not To Do

I occassionally tune in to see a 4:3 Show broadcast as a 16:9 show with a broadcaster-supplied filler letterbox on the left and right. The result on any correctly configured TV is a huge, black border around a little box of picture.

Much of the Le Mans 2009 coverage was spoilt by this. WTCC is frequently affected, too.

The 2009 MotoGP from Donnington was a 16:9 Show and was sent correctly. GP2 is usually like that, too.

Cinematic Aspect Ratios

A filler letterbox is a good thing for aspect ratios other than 4:3 and 16:9.

Broadcast these as a 16:9 Show, with a letterbox provided by the broadcaster to fill any vertical space between the show’s aspect ratio and 16:9. (I call one of these a Filler Letterbox.) I have seen TCM do this and it works well on a 4:3 Screen and a 16:9 Screen.

Another effective approach is to crop the edges of films so they can be broadcast as a normal 16:9 Show. This is what most channels do, it seems.

Arbitrary Aspect Ratios

Perhaps the ideal would be that broadcasters send exact aspect ratios and digital TV boxes understand them. They digital TV box could then add the necessary filler letterbox.

This would ensure any Show would fit nicely on 4:3 Screens and 16:9 Screens. Broadcasters would neither add their own letterboxes to nor do their own cropping for shows.

Discovery Changes for the Better

During 2007, the Discovery network had 14:9 Shows with a filler letterbox, padding them vertically into 4:3 Shows. The picture did not fill the height of the screen. You get padding all the way around shows broadcast this way on a 16:9 Screen!

In 2009, 14:9 shows are mostly broadcast as 16:9. The filler letterbox pads them horizontally, which works much better on both 4:3 Screens and 16:9 Screens. The picture fills the height of the screen with only a little padding to the far right.

Interaction of Shows, Screens and Modes

	4:3 Screen	16:9 Screen	4:3 Screen	16:9 Screen
	4:3 Show		16:9 Show
16:9 Widescreen Mode	Full Screen	Letterbox	Distorted	Full Screen
4:3 Letterbox Mode	Full Screen	Distorted	Letterbox	Distorted
4:3 Normal Mode	Full Screen	Distorted	Cropped	Cropped & Distorted

The interaction of any broadcaster-supplied filler letterbox is not shown.

Solution

Different channels manage their pictures differently. The solution is:

Broadcasters must declare the correct aspect ratio for each show.
Broadcasters must not add filler letterboxes to shows in the 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios.
Digital TV boxes must have the correct setting for the aspect ratio of the screen.
TVs must switch to a letterbox view for shows with a different aspect ratio.

Expected Results
	4:3 Show	16:9 Show
4:3 Screen	Full Screen	Letterbox
16:9 Screen	Letterbox	Full Screen

Clearly, this is the right way. It is already used by:

- BBC One
- BBC Two
- BBC Three
- BBC Four
- BBC News 24
- ITV 1
- ITV 2
- ITV 3
- ITV 4
- Channel 4
- Channel 4 + 1
- E4
- E4 + 1
- More 4
- Five
- Fiver
- Five USA
- Living
- Sky 1
- Sky 2
- Sky 3

For the most part, the Discovery network now do it this way. Also, Dave and related channels are getting better. Sci Fi gets it right for some shows and wrong for others, curiously.

Trivia

It seems broadcaster’s of more technical shows do not get the technicalities of broadcasting shows in the right size any better than other broadcasters. If anything, the reverse is true. (Compare E4 over the past few years with motorsports coverage on Eurosport or space exploration on Discovery.)