Footie on ITV

Rizzo the Rat

Hi Guys

I think this issue has been discussed in the past but I cannot find the details or remember solution if any!
As you know ITV are showing the Champions League tonight and I do not want to have to endure Trevor Welsh and TV3. But whenever I try to watch footie on ITV via Sky the screen size is reduced with black down both sides. I have my TVs set at 16:9 for widescreen and my sky boxes set like this also with scart connections. It does not happen for any other channel. It used to happen with BBC but not anymore. My 32” LCD TV automatically switches to widescreen format if a program is broadcast in this format but still no use for ITV.
Is there anything that can be done? World Cup coming up also so it would be nice to have this resolved.

Mossy Monk

the reason for the black bars is that the game is in 4:3 but ITV broadcast the whole show in 16:9. to remove them put the Sky box in 4:3 for the duration of the game but this will result in horrible a stretched picture though. not a bother for some but i find it horrible

DMC

This would be caused by the international feed for the game.
Most of Europe still broadcast live sport in 4:3, but nearly all sport on BBC/ITV/Ch4/Ch5 and Sky Sports are all 16:9

So, take last week's game shown on ITV1, from the San Siro. All the studio links (Gabby and the other two dolts) are produced by ITV themselves, and have been done in 16:9 even though they are in the stadium themselves.
When they switched to the Italian broadcasters live match feed, it was in 4:3, but ITV kept the game at 16:9 with black bars down the left and right, so as not to affect switching during the game.

It may well be like this tonight.

The last World Cup was in widescreen, iirc, so this shouldn't be an issue this time round. If its going to be in HD, then widescreen shouldn't be an issue.

Mossy Monk

the world cup will be widescreen

Rizzo the Rat

so DMC what is the story with TV3? They showed the exact same pictures from the match last week as their "friends" in ITV but we no black bars? Is it because all their broadcast was in the same format ie studio and match itself?

matty2003

If you set your TV to 4:3 rather than auto and set your skybox to 4:3 you should see no black bars tope or bottom or either side

DMC

Yes, TV3 transmitted everything in 4:3

Its not uncommon for the BBC to do this too. Watch out for a foreign insert to Grandstand, for instance, Gymnastics from Greece and Moto GP from Turkey are on Sunday afternoon. See what happens there. Sky, during the French Heineken Cup matches, filled the side bars with sky blue background.

Widescreen

Just one other question on this. Arsenal v Villareal last week at Highbury. Skysports broadcasted it in 16-9.but RTE had it in 4-3 . Why?? I thought RTE had switched to widescreen for most programmes including UK and Irish based sport. e.g .the premiership is in w/s both live and recorded highlights .
RTE lost my viewership for that match because they didnt put in on in w/s:mad:

DMC

Maybe Sky had the widescreen broadcast for themselves, and didn't make the international feed in 16:9. It leads to less chance of a balls up in other countries.

zAbbo

Nothing worse than the Sky rugby with the blue background, looks woeful, maybe not as bad as the stretched image you guy on TV3 soccer. That and a hoarse Ronny Whelen whispering down the phone he commendates on

DMC

Yep, as suspected.

ITV are in 16:9 mode, but the game is in 4:3.

The cue dot (used to alert regions of an imminent ad break) is flashing outside of the 4:3 safe area. The Champions League stings are in 16:9 and Gabby and co are in 16:9.

Lennoxschips

i don't understand why they do this, the bbc did this at the last world cup too and it was ridiculous

people would prefer if the match was shown in 4:3 native, with the half-time punditry in 4:3 also. it's not like i'm interested in watching widescreen punditry anyway, i'd prefer the match to be in full resolution

Mossy Monk

one of life's mysteries. it would seem tv executives think we all prefer it like this :mad: