Anyone else stuck with the CW in 4x3?

[gastrof]

A good while back I discovered our local NBC affiliate was sending out a signal that locks digital converter boxes (some, at least) on the "zoom" setting, making it impossible to watch a widescreen show in letterbox.

Yep. They're forcing you to watch in 4x3, with the edges of the widescreen picture missing.

Seems it's a combo effort by the station itself and NBC, because some local stuff is affected, and some national stuff is too. Other shows DO show up in letterbox.

Thing is our NBC station's owner bought our CW affiliate a while back, and moved the CW station to the same building. Same engineering staff, same everything.

Friday night, during the long awaited 2 hour Smallville movie, I checked my recorder (hooked to a digital converter box) and found that my OTA signal was locked on "zoom".

After Smallville, I checked again and the station was still locked on "zoom" but other channels weren't.

I phoned the station, and the engineering people insisted they weren't sending out the "center cut" signal.

In the meantime, the station's come in that way all weekend.

Another digital converter box that didn't "obey" the signal with the NBC station is still giving me letterboxed output on the CW station.

Is anyone else being denied letterboxed widescreen video on your CW station as of this past weekend?

 

[Christopher]

Oh, is that what's going on? I've been having that problem for months with most of the broadcast networks on my cable system.

 

[gastrof]

Oh, is that what's going on? I've been having that problem for months with most of the broadcast networks on my cable system.

I don't think so.

Cable companies have been letterboxing stuff for a long time on their own.

It's just this past weekend that it happened with our local CW station's over the air signal.

That's why I've been using the converter box instead of my cable signal. The cable version of our CW station went 4x3 a long time ago.

Now, it doesn't make any difference.

The annoying thing about this?

I've discovered that our NBC station, even on cable, is now properly alternating so that stuff that's true 4x3 does get zoomed, but widescreen stuff doesn't. It appears letterboxed, both OTA and on cable.

The CW station should take notes...

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I haven't noticed this on the CW, but for months, I had sworn that placed like FOX and ABC looked really weird on some shows, and considered maybe I was just out of my mind (for whatever reason, I keep forgetting the fact in widescreen...), but I know I had seen things that looked cut off. It settled the deal for me, when I was reading a review of an episode of V (thats currently on hiatus with ABC), and noticed a screencap they posted was in fact, a widescreen image. The worst offender of this is "The Cleavland Show", I get a fullscreen picture, but unless its a retarded running joke, it's clearly supposed to be in widescreen.

I just figured something weird was up, because my TV is a fullscreen, but now that others are saying something...

 

[Samurai8472]

I use to have this problem with the CW. They'd letterbox Smallville episodes. So the credits would read

mallvill

Tom Wellin

Micheal Rosenbau

Kristin Kreu

Laura Vandervoor

 

[gastrof]

I use to have this problem with the CW. They'd letterbox Smallville episodes. So the credits would read

mallvill

Tom Wellin

Micheal Rosenbau

Kristin Kreu

Laura Vandervoor

You're confused.

What you're describing is a chopping off of the edges of the widescreen image.

"Letterboxing" is NOT cutting the edges off. Letterboxing is when they give you the entire widescreen image, but there are black bars at the top and bottom, filling out the rest of the standard shape TV screen.

What you're describing is called "cropping" or "zooming". They have the video fill the standard 4x3 TV screen, but this means the edges of the widescreen picture disappear off the edges.

The CW insisted on doing this with cable, and as a result cable systems all over were showing SMALLVILLE as you describe. They got wise, and had Warner rework the opening credits for year nine, which is why the lettering can be seen on a cropped version.

My point is if the show is being run in widescreen (and it is), they should leave it to the viewer to use their "zoom" setting if they want. Not force us to see it that way. I want to see a widescreen show in letterbox so I get the entire picture. Not a version that's missing a whole quarter of what's really there.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

Agreed, if the network for some reason wants to air it "zoomed" like that (or however it is) then the picture itself, should be made as such. Not created in widescreen/letterbox and then aired cropped, it's retarded.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've got Comcast where I'm at (North of Seattle area) and both my HD channels of Fox and CW don't even play at all. I had to watch Smallville's Absolute Justice in SD, bah!

 

[Caligula]

NBC and the CW both have been pulling that 4:3 crap on my TV for the past 3 years now. It was annoying at first, but now I've just learned to accept it. They're going to do as they please, so the heck with it.

 

[gastrof]

I've got Comcast where I'm at (North of Seattle area) and both my HD channels of Fox and CW don't even play at all. I had to watch Smallville's Absolute Justice in SD, bah!

Problem, this is the station itself, not a cable situation. The "AFD" signal (crops widescreen to "center cut" on certain digital receivers) is being sent out by our CW station DELIBERATELY, even on the local stuff, not just things from the network.

Worse, the engineers at the station have denied they're doing it.

 

[gastrof]

NBC and the CW both have been pulling that 4:3 crap on my TV for the past 3 years now. It was annoying at first, but now I've just learned to accept it. They're going to do as they please, so the heck with it.

Past three years? TV only went to digital and true widescreen last summer.

Our CW station, even on its analog signal, always showed us widescreen stuff letterboxed, never cropped.

I bet you have cable or satellite?

Thing is this how it's now being sent out OVER THE AIR. Just started this past weekend.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

NBC and the CW both have been pulling that 4:3 crap on my TV for the past 3 years now. It was annoying at first, but now I've just learned to accept it. They're going to do as they please, so the heck with it.

Past three years? TV only went to digital and true widescreen last summer.

Our CW station, even on its analog signal, always showed us widescreen stuff letterboxed, never cropped.

I bet you have cable or satellite?

Thing is this how it's now being sent out OVER THE AIR. Just started this past weekend.

Yeah, the three years comment made me wonder to, because it's only recent that I had noticed this (I don't pay a ton of attention to TV anymore), Kind of shitty to be doing it, and then deny they are doing it, I don't get why they are doing this, other then to drive people nuts and get them to get digital boxes and TVs and blah blah blah blah.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Isn't there anything you can do on the TV itself to fix this?

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I was just wondering that, I don't mess with the TV settings a ton, because haven't been able to study it to much (the guide we got is shit), but it likely has settings somewhere where I can mess with the picture type. Who knows..

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Edit: Oops, much apologizings. The OP is referring to those boxes that convert digital signals to analog (which must be used now that the 'changeover' has occurred), not cable boxes, am I right?

Could this sort of thing happen with a cable box?

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I don't have a box, I just use an SDTV with a cable from the wall, but there's several different modes the TV can go, standard, digital and antenna. Likely, I could be wrong on the picture thing, but considering theres a few sound options, I figure there'd be video options as well.

 

[Caligula]

I bet you have cable or satellite?

Yep, I have cable. Figures that'd be why I'm still getting a 4x3 signal for those channels, but it's all I can afford right now.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I bet you have cable or satellite?

Yep, I have cable. Figures that'd be why I'm still getting a 4x3 signal for those channels, but it's all I can afford right now.

Same here, what's bothersome was before the switch over, it was not in fullscreen, some of these channels/shows. I had digital channels where a couple were HD ones even, at least I think they were, but then they went away and then the switch over. Bah.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What's been irritating me is when there's a channel in HD, yet the programming itself is standard def *but still letterboxed*! So what you get is 'all four sides boxing'.

SG-1 had this problem a lot. I don't recall ever seeing it in 'real' HD. Same goes for Enterprise.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

Why they letterboxed it, I don't know, but letterbox doesn't equal widescreen. Enterprise wasn't in HD until the final season, or rather it was "filmed" in HD in the final season.