[opendtv] Re: 4:3 transmissions of syndicated programming
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:21:36 -0800
John;
Actually, there are two different schemes for signaling the "active video"
portion of the video frame. They are mutually-exclusive.
Active Format Description is an optional feature of A/53 (and has been in
there for a few years) and pan/scan / bar data is an optional feature of
MPEG-2. AFD goes into mpeg-2 picture headers, pan/scan and bar data are
descriptors.
There are mechanisms for communicating these in MXF, in SDI/HD-SDI, etc.
John Willkie
-----Mensaje original-----
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de John Shutt
Enviado el: Monday, March 03, 2008 11:02 AM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: 4:3 transmissions of syndicated programming
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
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