Do you stretch 4:3 SDTV signals to fit your 16:9 HDTV?

[bhanja_trinanjan]

Well thats what everybody does

I once argued in vain with a salesman at E-zone, who insisted that the stretched picture was the correct original!

And yes! Thats what just about everybody does buy a LCD HDTV and stretch TATA Sky to cover the whole screen.

I just cant tolerate that stretched picture and preserve the source aspect ratio, even if that means vertical black borders on my KLV-32V-550A

 

[multifaced]

Eventhough my plasma gives vertical gray lines, i like the original signal most of teh times

 

[Asit]

This is an interesting and relevant question. I have raised it a few times in this forum, but somehow there was not much of a response. Yes, I too hate stretching the pictures in 4:3 to 16:9, people look fatter, everybody's nose looks never-ending on side-view, etc etc. So we sometimes used to watch in the 4:3 ratio, but that keeps black portiona on the two sides.

I subscribe to BigTV, and I think it has by far the best picture among all the DTH vendors. Believe me, I have tested and compared all those available in our locality (for a period of about 2 months). People complain about their service and slow and inelegant interface. I own it for nearly a year, I never needed any service so far, and the installation was almost immediate. I do not bother too much about the interface/software because at the end of the day, I am going to watch TV channels and not play with the interface. I did not post in that polling thread, because I did not want a fight on this. I see that Tata Sky is winning that poll, I just wonder if all people voting for TataSky have compared diligently their signals with all the other signals. If you want a proof, come and watch at my place, you would know.

The reason I am mentioning all this about BigTV is that I have a feeling, recently they have started sending some of the channels with 16:9 aspect ratio. I want to verify this from experts like "adder". The BigTV logo has a red square in which the word "Big" sits. That was initially rectangular (stretched horizontally) for all channels, but now I am finding at least some (if not, many) channels are having that as square, also the pictures do not look stretched. I just want to check with others if that is not an illusion I am having.

Regards.

 

[psychotropic]

i watch minimal TV, and I don't find it difficult at all to watch the slightly stretched people when i see it on 16:9, so I keep it like that, can't stand the black/grey bars. Also I have a plasma, so bars are not a good idea for me.

With regard to Big TV, yes the picture is definitely superb, and the interface i suppose of varying levels of importance for various people. it would be interesting if they're broadcasting some channels in 16:9, but that would mean that the original uplink by the channel should be in 16:9, and i am wondering which channels, if any, do that. Perhaps the foreign ones like Nat Geo and Discovery T&L.

 

[reju]

1st one month I watched "normal" (4:3) mode.
Then I always switched to to "wide zoom" mode to minimize stretching.

 

[mahiruha]

Hello,
I have a question here. In the tatasky itself there is an option display setting to be 4:3 or 16: 9. when you say strething are you changing this option in tata sky or you are changing the setting in HDTV itself. In a way the question comes in my mind when we choose this trasformation from 4:3 to 16:9 is it simply related to changing geometry or the upscaling chip built inside the television has something to do with it?
Thnaks,
Mahiruha.

 

[adder]

well i strech the image sometimes provided the source video was hot in wide screen format,like for instance WB channel and UTV world movies show movies in their native ratio,but BIG tv does output in 4:3 format,but when i compared the movie FIFTH ELEMENT which was shown in utv world movies and my own DVD played via XBOX,i noticed that when u manualy stretch it from TV ,the aspect ratio is exactly the same as the ouput given by XBOX.

so put it simply if the source video have black bars u can strech the image back in ur tv,their faces won't look streched or any kind of difference.
some channels however modify the aspect ration like convert wide screen to regular 4:3 format,like star sports all F1 is shot in HD wide screen format but star sports changes the aspect ration to 4:3,if anybody had seen this years first race for a few minutes star sports where showing it in 16:9 format,the F1 symbol had gone outside the screen,they offcourse swithced back to 4:3.

@Asit
regarding BIG tv like i have said before its video quality is just amazing,but i have owned it now for over 1 year and 4 months,for almost 1 year their interface software sucked,use to occasionaly hang.but when i switched to UEC aka stb2 99% of the problems got solved ,but when they updated the software few months ago the problems creeped back,but the very recent update as once again sorted most of the annoying problems.

 

[adder]

Hello,
I have a question here. In the tatasky itself there is an option display setting to be 4:3 or 16: 9. when you say strething are you changing this option in tata sky or you are changing the setting in HDTV itself. In a way the question comes in my mind when we choose this trasformation from 4:3 to 16:9 is it simply related to changing geometry or the upscaling chip built inside the television has something to do with it?
Thnaks,
Mahiruha.

none of the DTH providers allow u to change the aspect ratio,even though u find the option in ur tata sky STBs,big tv stbs etc.except perhaps sun DTH HD.

 

[frnd08]

what other option do we have? all dth have 4:3 signals. (actually its the broadcasters who are at fault here)

 

[bhanja_trinanjan]

Nice to see so many responses in a short time!

I am trying to convince my parents that the 4:3 picture is waaaay better than the stretched one!

 

[marsilians]

what other option do we have? all dth have 4:3 signals. (actually its the broadcasters who are at fault here)

Broadcasters dont have much control - its the producers of the programmes.

 

[marsilians]

Well thats what everybody does

I once argued in vain with a salesman at E-zone, who insisted that the stretched picture was the correct original!

And yes! Thats what just about everybody does buy a LCD HDTV and stretch TATA Sky to cover the whole screen.

I just cant tolerate that stretched picture and preserve the source aspect ratio, even if that means vertical black borders on my KLV-32V-550A

Do you mean stretched as in zoom or upconvert? Sorry many people misuse the term so just want to clarify.

 

[bhanja_trinanjan]

Do you mean stretched as in zoom or upconvert? Sorry many people misuse the term so just want to clarify.

I mean a 4:3 signal stretched horizontally as in wide zoom, to fill the entire screen, thereby spoiling the aspect ratio. (Everybody looks like a midget, fat and short.) :lol:

 

[Karma]

I was facing the same problem till I discovered that in the Tata sky remote there is a button called Organiser. If u press that u come to picture settings and there u can change the aspect ratio to 16:9 in case u are watching it on a widescreen tv. This solved the problem for me as pictures didn't seem stretched thereafter. U then checked with Tata sky cal centre and they confirmed that they provide option of changing aspect ratio
Hope this helps
Cheers

 

[shyamal]

is that tata sky or Tata sky plus? Also any idea what's the diff between the two
Thanks

 

[bhanja_trinanjan]

I was facing the same problem till I discovered that in the Tata sky remote there is a button called Organiser. If u press that u come to picture settings and there u can change the aspect ratio to 16:9 in case u are watching it on a widescreen tv. This solved the problem for me as pictures didn't seem stretched thereafter. U then checked with Tata sky cal centre and they confirmed that they provide option of changing aspect ratio
Hope this helps
Cheers

I knew that Tata Sky Plus offered Component Out + Ability to record. Source signal is the same and is 4:3

With Tata Sky, setting the STB to 16:9 does nothing.

is that tata sky or Tata sky plus? Also any idea what's the diff between the two
Thanks

See above...

 

[theEnd]

Yes, I can confirm that with Tata Sky +, if you go into settings and change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9, nothing changes.

All this makes me wonder why none of the manufacturers make 4:3 LCD or plasma televisions.

 

[psychotropic]

yup, nothing changes....but it's a peresonal preference at the end of the day, i for one don't find the difference to be significant enough to forego the larger picture, whereas I can imagine how some would.

Yes, I can confirm that with Tata Sky +, if you go into settings and change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9, nothing changes.

All this makes me wonder why none of the manufacturers make 4:3 LCD or plasma televisions.

 

[nirrej]

It is really atrocious to stretch the original picture.
That way a football will look like an egg.

once tried explaining this to a Panasonic showroom "demo guy"
he coudn't understand. Then placed a 2 rupee coin on the Sun TV logo
and explained. Then he understood...

One way of not getting Black bars is by zooming/ enlarging the picture. That way you would lose detail at the top and bottom of the frame. But it would be disastrous as you will not be able to see your fav actors hair in a close up shot, etc, etc

This is the method used to convert movies to Tv (4:3) format in studios. That way the movies lose detail on the left and right edges, but it is not significant, as most of the action is concentrated in the 4:3 area, except lanscape shots.

 

[Vijay_s]

none of the DTH providers allow u to change the aspect ratio,even though u find the option in ur tata sky STBs,big tv stbs etc.except perhaps sun DTH HD.

This is not true, I have dish tv and in setup there is an option for setting 16:9, but it doesn't guarantee that you get perfect 16:9 for a normal telecast. But once you set this option few channels which telecast in 16:9 will appear good, Check following channels to confirm

News X (Always on 16:9)
History channel (Few programs telecast in 16:9)
Animal planet (Few programs telecast in 16:9)