RTE widescreen this week ?

Charles Slane

This was posted by John Lynch over on DigitalSpy, let's hope it comes to pass -

RTE set to go widescreen

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For those of you lucky enough to live in ROI (quick joke) The national TV provider is getting things together to launch widescreen this thursday the 17th of February on Sky and digital cable. Initially the service will be made for any movies broadcast, quickly moving onto all other programmes. The news is set to changed later in September. A 14:9 format will continue to be transmitted on widescreen sources for terrestrial with a 16:9 - 12:9 option being made available via satellite - john

Pat Gleeson

'You're A Star' - don't blame me
was broadcast in 14:9 two weeks ago, but reverted to 4:3 last wek,
according to my wife.
Ray Darcy made a reference to 'Widescreen' also two weeks ago.

RTE may be getting the finger out at last.

Mossy Monk

i wait in hope

channelsurfer

reads it and nearly chokes on my breakfast. rte going widescreen and proper widescreen too. wonder if they are just trying to get one up on tv3 by going widescreen early. think tv3 forced their hand by announcing that they were going widescreen this summer.could be years before those who dont have sky or cable get it though. why should we have to pay sky to see rte in widescreen when we pay our tv licence. what a joke.

Mossy Monk

because it cost RTÉ nothing to go on Sky. Sky covered the cost of encryption and EPG placement

cable viewers must pay for RTÉ too

celticfc

Can't wait, here's hoping they get their sport coverage into widescreen asap.

Scottish paddy

Just to let you all know that it doesn't actually "cost" anything to go widescreen. Nearly all modern broadcast tv cameras are 16:9 switchable, so in many cases the difference between broadcasting a programme in 4:3 and 16:9 is literally the flick of a switch.

JDxtra

It's not just a matter of 'flicking a switch' on a few cameras. Their playout and broadcast systems need to be compatible and configured for handling widescreen broadcasts.

If the bulk of a TV channels equipment is only designed to handle 4:3 playout then it could prove quite expensive to upgrade / replace.

Mossy Monk

if you ever notice on programmes like Home & Away at the end it is an actual widescreen picture on the plasma behind the presenter

watty

A waste of Licence Payer money....

Let NTL and Sky PAY RTE if RTE is doing widescreen as ONLY Pay TV subscribers will get it.

channelsurfer

totally agrees with watty.. rte should not have to pay a penny for this so that ntl and sky a foreign company who refuses to recognise the authority of the irish broadcasting authorites yet is perfectly happy to take the revenue away can benifit. while a digital terrestrial network is years away because of underfunding...

JDxtra

Jeepers. When are u guys going to lose those chips on your shoulders? Can we forget about all these anti-Sky/ntl comments for a change?

This is a positive step, and one which I (as a TV licence payer) am looking forward to.

We should be thankful that RTE are listening to their viewers and moving at least some way forward in this digital age.

Brian017

I can't tell the difference widescreen and 4:3. Can someone tell me?

JDxtra

There is a good article here about it...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/widescreen/

Mossy Monk

has anyone contacted RTÉ about this

Scottish paddy

jdempsey wrote:

It's not just a matter of 'flicking a switch' on a few cameras. Their playout and broadcast systems need to be compatible and configured for handling widescreen broadcasts.

If the bulk of a TV channels equipment is only designed to handle 4:3 playout then it could prove quite expensive to upgrade / replace.

I'am sorry but recording / playout is no different in 16:9 to 4:3 and any vtr will handle it (including the bog standard VHS!) The only things "extra" you might need are some 16:9 monitors (you can even use modified 4:3 monitors)
and some ARC's (aspect ratio converters) to convert for your various broadcast outputs (digital and analogue). As RTE already take in programmes in 16:9 they will already have several ARC's. The point I am making is that it will cost RTE virtually nothing to "go widescreen".

Charles Slane

Well tomorrow should reveal all (hopefully in glorious widescreen).

If (as has been indicated) they start with just movies, there's not a whole lot to see tomorrow. It looks like we may have to wait until RTE 2's showing of "The Haunting" at 21.30 to know if it's really happening.

Aquos76

Mossy Monk wrote:

has anyone contacted RTÉ about this

Well if it has come from the John Lynch that I know, He actually works for RTE. He is based out of Cork and he has passed on information in the past to me, which has always been correct. I will give him a call in the morning to see can I get an update.

Phibsboro

its wierd - I could have sworn I saw rte in 16:9 on NTL Digital a couple of weeks ago - I even txted my sister who works out there, cos she'd mentioned it was on the way (tho she was talking spring/early summer i think) . I can't remember the programme tho

Could have been a test I guess.

C

watty

jdempsey wrote:

Jeepers. When are u guys going to lose those chips on your shoulders? Can we forget about all these anti-Sky/ntl comments for a change?

This is a positive step, and one which I (as a TV licence payer) am looking forward to.

We should be thankful that RTE are listening to their viewers and moving at least some way forward in this digital age.

No chip on shoulder against Sky or NTL.

The problem is RTE who assume that anyone want more than 4 channels or wants Digital is a Pay TV subscriber.


With RTE we pay TWICE to get a quality signal or Widescreen. The problem is RTE.


I'm not paying twice, so am treated as a second class viewer of no importance by RTE and TV3 and will not get Widescreen and in case of TV3, not even a good signal.


I have FOUR digital satellite receivers and NO subscriptions. If you prefer to buy the DVD of Films you like and watch NO sport, then Pay TV is very bad value.


Widescreen or more correctly Original Aspect Ratio is a good thing. The BBC has gone to a an opposite stupid extreme either cropping or windoboxing non-Widescreen to an Animorphic 16:9 frame.

Only Widescreen material should be Widescreen.

Even without Animorphic 16:9 films could be letterboxed instead of pan/scan cropped.

A Brodcaster with some Guts and vision can even Broadcast true Anaimorphic WS on ANALOG (say a late night film once a week). Very little cost. Did you know than all WS TVs and many high end 4:3 TVs support true automatic WSS to 16:9 on Analog as well as digital.

watty

Scottish paddy wrote:

I'am sorry but recording / playout is no different in 16:9 to 4:3 and any vtr will handle it (including the bog standard VHS!) The only things "extra" you might need are some 16:9 monitors (you can even use modified 4:3 monitors)
and some ARC's (aspect ratio converters) to convert for your various broadcast outputs (digital and analogue). As RTE already take in programmes in 16:9 they will already have several ARC's. The point I am making is that it will cost RTE virtually nothing to "go widescreen".

The only issues is the WSS flag status and making sure you don't accidently feed the analog network with Animorphic.

If you don't get the WSS flags right on the WHOLE SYSTEM, then when a 4:3 advert occurs in a 16:9 film the ANALOG ARC will distort the 4:3 image cos it thinks it is still 16:9

You can't just decide to have WS. A huge amount of upgrading and testing is needed.

The recording and playback itself is not the issue, preserving the WSS flag is.

A big 4:3 monitor or big 4:3 TV with WSS to true Animorphic (by automatically reducing the picture height is a very nice thing. My 29" 4:3 gives a MUCH bigger picture (at better quality) than a twice as expensive 28" WS TV. It does true WS by reducing the height (not letterboxing) giving a slightly bigger than 27" WS picture. Best of both worlds.

Blank glass, not black lines top and bottom. A WS tube set will have black bars at side for 4:3 and black bars top and bottom (Cinema WS ) quite often if correctly set.

Forget about Filling the glass with picture on WS or 4:3 TVs.

mburke

Watty,

quick question what make / model 27" do you have ?

Phibsboro

Something strange happening on both rte's on ntl digital at the mo - black bars across top and bottom. It looks like a 16:9 picture shown in a 4:3 screen. Im on a widescreen TV. Looks like somebody has got their formats mixed up somewhere along the line. What does Sky look like?

C

Round Cable

According to John Lynch:

RTÉ did a brief test on widescreen today on Sky, but due to a slight incompatability problem with the international switching standard which RTÉ uses and the switching standard which Sky uses, the change over to widescreen was delayed. The change over should take place after this wrinkle have been ironed out, stay tuned - john

parasite

'As time goes by' was in 16:9 today on rte1, it didn't automatically switch over to 16:9 though
:rolleyes:

Phibsboro

I reckon thats exactly what i saw - 16:9 on NTL but not sensed as such - and by "not sensed" I don't mean by my telly, I mean by NTL digital - NTL digital was displaying a 4:3 picture containing what looked like a 16:9 picture - so I had black bars down the side, ala 4:3, and black bars across top and bottom ala 16:9 on a 4:3 telly. Dare I say, a complete f&*$ up by RTE. Talk of "a slight incompatability problem " seems wide of the mark - this was fubar surely?

C

watty

mburke wrote:

Watty,

quick question what make / model 27" do you have ?

I don't have a 27", It is closer to 29".

Mitsubishi "black Diamond".

Philips and Sony 26" and bigger 4:3 TVs also do TRUE widescreen (animorphic) by reducing vertical drive to give same squashed picture as if 16:9 tube is fitted.

Remember a Animorphic WS picture is a cheat. It has the same number of pixels as 4:3, it is just the pixels (dots) are regarded as more elongated. This is why a 704 x 576 "DVD" format in WS (16:9) is *SAME* resolution as 480x576 "SVCD" in 4:3 mode

"square" 4:3 pixels would need 768 x576. "Square" 16:9 pixels would need 1024 x 576 roughly. So this is why animorphic pictures are lower resolution than 4:3 images on the same medium.

Broadcasters on Sky use 352, 480, 544 and 704 horizontal pixel modes.

Widescreen and Digital is NOT about quality, sadly.

However for a Cinema film (OAR 1.66, 1.85, 2.35 or 2.7:1 ratios), letterboxing in a 16:9 anamorphic frame (1.78:1 Aspect) does give higher resolution than letterboxing in a 4:3 frame. You don't gain any horizontal advantage, but vertically since more lines are used. (Except on the rare 1.66 films even 1.85 have small black bands hidden by overscan on most WS TVs. The "Black bands" are noticable at 2.35 films).

Absolutily no film for cinema is shot 16:9 (1.78:1) so I don't know why this was chosen rather than the common 1.85:1. Also with film inherent resolution is higher than ordinary HDTV, so either masking to Widescreen (Matte) or using a distorting "Panavision" lens on camera and projector (anamorphic, the image on film is squished) is not the disadvantage that either Letterbox or Anamorphic is on TV.

culabula

Has something happened? All four national channels are defaulting to 14:9 this evening (not earlier this afternoon) on Sky here just outside Belfast.

10000maniacs

RTE supplied a widescreen feed to BBC for the Rugger at Lansdowne yesterday, last year it was a 4:3 feed.

Mossy Monk

i thought the BBC did the OB stuff for the 6 nations

culabula

10000maniacs wrote:

RTE supplied a widescreen feed to BBC for the Rugger at Lansdowne yesterday, last year it was a 4:3 feed.

Yes, I flicked back and forward several times. 16:9 on BBC Freeview and Sky, 4:3 on RTE. Each channel carries their own logo in the top left-hand corner.

However, this doesn't explain last night. The switching was haywire. The god-awful Meteor awards appeared to be in 14:9 until the last quarter of the show when it reverted to 4:3.

DMC

Mossy Monk wrote:

i thought the BBC did the OB stuff for the 6 nations

They do. Basically RTÉ got the live match feed from the BBC.

channelsurfer

it would appear that the rte technicians need to be flown over to london fairly quickly to get a lesson in how to do widescreen properly form the bbc.. didnt they even think that this might happen?

JDxtra

DMC wrote:

They do. Basically RTÉ got the live match feed from the BBC.

The picture quality was far superior (& in widescreen) for the match on the BBC compared to the slighlty blurred and over contrasted image on RTE (well, via ntl:digital anyways). But that's slightly off topic...

Charles Slane

jdempsey wrote:

The picture quality was far superior (& in widescreen) for the match on the BBC compared to the slighlty blurred and over contrasted image on RTE (well, via ntl:digital anyways). But that's slightly off topic...

Even on the NTL analogue picture I thought that RTE's version looked very blurred, but I thought I must have been going blind or mad (or both).

radiospan

BBC definately did the OB for the rugby, the onscreen graphics and links in and out of replays were theirs. Far better picture on the Beeb yesterday, I watched it there with Radio Ulster commentary.

10000maniacs

DMC wrote:

They do. Basically RTÉ got the live match feed from the BBC.

Hmmm...Last year the coverage on BBC1 WS for the Irish home matches was 4:3 with the sides chopped off.

DMC

Ah. This depends on the match, and how much OB resources they throw at it!

It is possible that the France game in Dublin may well be 4:3, but the BBC had WS from Italy for the first time this year.

celticfc

DMC wrote:

It is possible that the France game in Dublin may well be 4:3, but the BBC had WS from Italy for the first time this year.

Nah, all last years matches at Stadio Flaminio were also in widescreen, it was only the French & Irish home games that were 4:3.