Paramount widescreen

Has anyone noticed Paramount on Sky recently? They're broadcasting absolutely everything in 16:9, even 4:3 material! Was watching Cheers earlier on a 28" 4:3 TV and it didn't look right at all.

It seems that the 4:3 feed is being stretched to 16:9 since the DOG is way outside the safe zone. Looks like typical "shop window syndrome", even on a 4:3 set.

mike65

Its the same on NTL

Mike.

Chalk

that was happening on ntl for the psat while.

i think they were acually going at 2.35:1 as at one point barely a third of my 4:3 was covered.

its been fixed since.
maybe they're testing the different feeds one at a time?

Mossy Monk

ideally they would use a seperate channel to test that out but not viacom :mad:

Charles Slane

Yep, I noticed it right from the start. I posted about it but it didn't seem to bother anyone. I sent an e-mail to Sky about it (because I couldn't find an e-mail address for Paramount Comedy themselves), and got the usual unintersted reply.

If anyone can find a way to contact Paramount Comedy to let them know about this, I'd be happy to e-mail them. Until then, we're stuck with a technical f-up that it seems they don't know about.

David Stewart

And has anyone noticed Paramount is running Irish adverts? Could the two facts be related?

chorus techy

Yeah it is related in that Viacom switched the Irish over to a seperate Irish stream of Paramount Comedy, but since day 1, have transmitted everything with a 16:9 flag so widescreen TVs stretch the picture and ordinary TVs have a "Pan & Scan" or letterbox mode, warping the picture way out of shape. At one stage, the picture on NTL analogue was being letterboxed as if it were widescreen material - took 'em three weeks to figure out to how to fix it...

Charles Slane

The original thread is at -
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=254425

JDxtra

I searched everywhere for a contact address for Paramount to ask them to sort it - but no luck.

Charles Slane

jdempsey wrote:

I searched everywhere for a contact address for Paramount to ask them to sort it - but no luck.

I couldn't find one on their site. They're very secretive !

I sent the message below to mailbox (an online version of what used to be the letters page on Paramount text). I'll let you know if I get any answers -

"I know you're not affiliated with Paramount but I'm looking for an address to e-mail them and I've found no joy on their website.

Since Paramount started it's Irish service (same programmes, different ads) they've been broadcasting with widescreen switching turned on. As you know, Paramount doesn't actually broadcast in widescreen so what we're getting here is a 4.3 picture stretched across 16.9.

It looks awful (as you can probably imagine).

Those of us on the Irish satellite and cable forums have tried to find a contact address but have gotten nowhere.

Can you help with an e-mail address or even send word in the right direction ?

Thanks,

Charles Slane"

Mossy Monk

Charles Slane wrote:

I sent the message below to mailbox (an online version of what used to be the letters page on Paramount text)

i thought Mailbox was dead

long time reader, 1 time contributor

Charles Slane

Mossy Monk wrote:

i thought Mailbox was dead

long time reader, 1 time contributor

Pretty much the same as me. Their new home is -

http://www.newmailbox.co.uk/

mike65

I have'nt checked but you might want to search www.digitalspy.co.uk forums

Mike.

byte

Pretty secretive alright.
Nearest I got:
Contact Tony Orsten(Director of Programming)
Address 3-5 Rathbone Place
-
London

England
W1P 1DA
Telephone 0207 3997700
Fax 0207 3997730
Website www.paramountcomedy.co.uk
Email herb@paramountcomedy.com

Taken from: 4RFV.co.uk

Charles Slane

Seems to be fixed now ! Don't know if the e-mail to mailbox helped, but everyone's looking thinner now.

mike65

Yep fixed on de cable too.

Mike.

Mossy Monk

nice one. hopefully i'll have my sky up and running tomorrow so i can watch Scrubs in piece on Paramount.

pain in the arse changing box to 16:9