Bert,I see your point there, and that is a decision made by the syndicator, not the broadcaster. However, it will either be a 4:3 SD letterbox, or a 4:3 full screen. The infrastructure just isn't there at most stations for mixing 4:3 and 16:9 SD programming, even though the equipment is available.
The biggest drawback is that there is no standard way of automatically signaling video as 4:3 or 16:9. If there were, then it would be much easier to store anamorphic 16:9 alongside 4:3 within a video server, and have a downstream format converter either pillarbox the 4:3, or alternately letterbox the 16:9 automatically on a clip by clip basis.
I see tons of letterboxed SD programming on PBS and on the cable networks. As such, I have not heard of any viewer objection to letterboxing per se.
My own personal preference is for a 14:9 SD letterbox of 16:9 material. Makes a good compromise between maintaining staging for 16:9 and minimizing wasted screen area on 4:3 TVs.
John----- Original Message ----- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
Example: last night, CBS9 was transmitting an old episode of CSI Miami. The episode was originally HD and 16:9, and now it was being transmitted as SD and 4:3. I've seen this sort of scenario repeated countless times. Why couldn't the syndicated show have been transmitted as SD and 16:9?
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