Channel 6 aspect ratio

Poochie05

Anyone else notice problems with the aspect ratio on Channel 6? I only watch Channel 6 for Friday Night Lights on a Sunday night so not sure if this is normal but both last week and the week before it seems to be zoomed closer than usual. Previous weeks it seemed OK. I haven't changed anything on my TV and all the other stations seem fine.

Full_Circle

I thought Channel 6 were doing us a favour by broadcasting the show in widescreen, maybe I'm wrong? But if you set your TVs aspect ratio to "16X9" it will fill a widescreen telly perfectly. Sky1 did this for a while a year or so ago and I was most pleased. It didnt last long though.......

decob

yeah i don't think channel 6 understand aspect ratio.

Lochaber

Channel 6 used to have perfect aspect ratios... can only assume that's they've moved over to the TV3 transmission system and someone isn't paying attention.... their teletext is gone too...

Poochie05

Lochaber wrote: »

Channel 6 used to have perfect aspect ratios... can only assume that's they've moved over to the TV3 transmission system and someone isn't paying attention.... their teletext is gone too...

That's what I thought, I've only noticed this in the last few weeks. To add insult to injury, the episode they transmitted on Sunday was a repeat of one shown 2 weeks ago not the next one of the season as advertised on their website and in the EPG. They did this a few weeks ago as well so I think you are right, someone isn't paying attention!

Full_Circle

I say again, is this new aspect ratio not a good thing? I was never happy with the way they broadcast their music videos (on The Loop and Night Shift and so on), the picture is always squashed rather than stretched and theres nothing that can be done to fix it. But with a stretched picture (like the shows have now), you just set your TV to its widescreen setting and its perfect. This is exactly the same setting I use when I watch shows from the States that I get from my "American cousins", so I'm assuming that this is a more correct way of watching them.........no?

Poochie05

Full_Circle wrote: »

I say again, is this new aspect ratio not a good thing? you just set your TV to its widescreen setting and its perfect. This is exactly the same setting I use when I watch shows from the States that I get from my "American cousins", so I'm assuming that this is a more correct way of watching them.........no?

I don't know, that's why I was asking if anyone else noticed the difference. My TV is on the widescreen setting and the picture seems a little too zoomed. I watched the first season on DVD and I know the style of the camera work for this show is quite close but I don't remember it being so close up (I must take out a DVD and remind myself!) but maybe I have just gotten used to watching it as broadcast by Channel 6 up to now which is why I just find it a bit jarring.

But if someone tells me that's the way it's supposed to be, I'll stop thinking there's something wrong and embrace the change!

Conor108

Its zoomed when I watch in widescreen:( Do people who work there not notice this?

afatbollix

they must have the tv 3 system in place now... that system they have to manually change the ratio...

iseegirls

yeah TV3 ratio is ridiculous - it goes to widescreen for news, ireland AM etc . . . it just looks like its really stretched out.

Full_Circle

Poochie05 wrote: »

My TV is on the widescreen setting and the picture seems a little too zoomed.

But there is a huge difference between a "zoomed" setting and a "widescreen" setting on a TV. Are you sure you are using the right one?

When you change the setting to "zoom" (either 14x9 or 16x9), you are just increasing the magnification, going in closer to the picture. You would use this setting when a channel broadcasts a programme with black borders on the top and bottom.

But lately Channel 6 have been broadcasting shows in such a way that you need to set your TV to "widescreen", which takes a stretched picture and squashes it so that the picture is in the correct proportions.

If I had to choose between the two, I prefer for things to be broadcast in the way Channel 6 are showing them. It means that you get a full widescreen picture, nothing is lost and everything is in the correct proportion.

Does anyone agree?

Poochie05

Full_Circle wrote: »

But there is a huge difference between a "zoomed" setting and a "widescreen" setting on a TV. Are you sure you are using the right one?
When you change the setting to "zoom" (either 14x9 or 16x9), you are just increasing the magnification, going in closer to the picture. You would use this setting when a channel broadcasts a programme with black borders on the top and bottom.

But lately Channel 6 have been broadcasting shows in such a way that you need to set your TV to "widescreen", which takes a stretched picture and squashes it so that the picture is in the correct proportions.

If I had to choose between the two, I prefer for things to be broadcast in the way Channel 6 are showing them. It means that you get a full widescreen picture, nothing is lost and everything is in the correct proportion.

Does anyone agree?

Yes I am sure it is on the widescreen setting not the zoom setting.

Lochaber

Full_Circle wrote: »

But there is a huge difference between a "zoomed" setting and a "widescreen" setting on a TV. Are you sure you are using the right one?

When you change the setting to "zoom" (either 14x9 or 16x9), you are just increasing the magnification, going in closer to the picture. You would use this setting when a channel broadcasts a programme with black borders on the top and bottom.

But lately Channel 6 have been broadcasting shows in such a way that you need to set your TV to "widescreen", which takes a stretched picture and squashes it so that the picture is in the correct proportions.

If I had to choose between the two, I prefer for things to be broadcast in the way Channel 6 are showing them. It means that you get a full widescreen picture, nothing is lost and everything is in the correct proportion.

Does anyone agree?

Just to ask - are you watching on Digital or Cable?

The way it used to be you didn't need to change your TV's aspect ratio on digital for Channel 6 - as long as your box was set to 16:9 (or 4:3 if you had a 4:3) tv then the channel would automatically switch depending on whether the programme was in 4:3 or 16:9.

Now on digital it seems to be set on 4:3 all the time. This is why I think it's because of TV3. You might notice on TV3 that ads are in widescreen (16:9) while some TV programmes are in 4:3. TV3 had to manually change their aspect ratios and you often see a second or two of the wrong aspect ratio before someone flips the switch. They're obviously not bothering to do this for Channel 6 - most US programmes are in 4:3 so it's to just leave the channel in 4:3. Even though this means that all ads and programmes that are 16:9 end up looking squashed.

Not sure there's much can be done about this though... don't think TV3 is overly concerned with aspect ratios....

Full_Circle

Lochaber wrote: »

Just to ask - are you watching on Digital or Cable?

The way it used to be you didn't need to change your TV's aspect ratio on digital for Channel 6 - as long as your box was set to 16:9 (or 4:3 if you had a 4:3) tv then the channel would automatically switch depending on whether the programme was in 4:3 or 16:9.

Now on digital it seems to be set on 4:3 all the time. This is why I think it's because of TV3. You might notice on TV3 that ads are in widescreen (16:9) while some TV programmes are in 4:3. TV3 had to manually change their aspect ratios and you often see a second or two of the wrong aspect ratio before someone flips the switch. They're obviously not bothering to do this for Channel 6 - most US programmes are in 4:3 so it's to just leave the channel in 4:3. Even though this means that all ads and programmes that are 16:9 end up looking squashed.

Not sure there's much can be done about this though... don't think TV3 is overly concerned with aspect ratios....

Ah see, I'm still on cable. And why wouldn't TV3, as a broadcaster not be concerned with aspect ratios?? It totally wrecks my head when people watch stuff in the wrong aspect ratio. I'd be 100 time more annoyed if people who WORK in television weren't able to get it right! :mad: