Page 1 of Channel 4 & 16.9

this might be the "norm", but I have only recently acquired a widescreen TV. The only channel that "automatically" sends the ratio to 16.9 is Channel 4, and this very late at night/early morning. Are they experimenting, or should all channels do this on my new set, automatically? Prtetty impressive, anyway.

Are you using a digital decoder? As I understand it, you will only get a `true` widescreen picture from a Sky box or similar and a DVD player. I have a Toshiba Widescreen TV that auto ratio switches on all channels but only when using Sky. You have to make sure that your Sky box is set to 16:9 and use a SCART to connect to your TV.

If you`re viewing on analogue, you will only get a stretched 4:3 ratio picture and the black bars top and bottom seen on most TV programmes these days will still appear if you switch to 16:9 mode. You might get rid of them if you have a zoom feature on your TV.

No. no Sky box. It is a "true" 16.9 image, not streched, no black bars. As I said, it only happens late at night/early morning, so maybe they are experimenting? The image is excellent, not at all like using the zoom function which can make the image rather grainy. Channel 4 is doing it on late night movies, but also on late night documentaries. Can also record it in this 16.9 mode.
Hope this is going to be the way for all channels.
The TV, by the way is Philips 6006 (all analogue).

Seems like a nightly occiurrence as it happened again last night. Is this happening to others, or to other channels?

Hi,

When I first got a widescreen tv 3 years ago there were no analogue 16:9 transmissions. On a couple of occassions though, Anglia TV did broadcast part of a programme in 16:9. The TV flicked to wide mode automatically during these. It only ever lasted a couple of minutes though. I contacted Anglia, and they didn`t know what I was talking about.

However, to enjoy true widescreen, go digital. A 16:9 tv without digital is a bit pointless as there are never going to be fully widescreen analogue transmissions (remember they are going to be scrapped completely in the future), and about 80-90% of digital tv is widescreen (mainstream channels anyway).

Cheers

As I understand it, Channel 4 are the only terrestrial broadcaster to send the "wide" signal. This tells your lovely widescreen tv to flip to 16:9 format.
However, it is not an anamorphic image - it is still in effect a zoomed picture. Satellite does send anamorphic (if I understand things correctly).

Recently the Beeb have been broadcasting films in their original ratio (well, at least 16:9 if not 1:2.35) - they are not sending the WIDE signal though, so you would need to let your tv automatically zoom it or select the zoom setting yourself.

I have the same tv but use ntl and loads of channels braodcast in anamorphic widescreen.
Although E4 really winds me up as the aspects are all over the place on there.

I`ve got Telewest Digital and it`s b******s. Even after I found the 16:9 setting for the digibox.

On analogue broadcasts the BBC channels & Channel 4 definitely autoswitch with my 32" LG widescreen, not sure about ITV.

On digital TV only E4 broadcasts true W/S, BBC/ITV/C4/C5 and other cable channels are just stretched out so I switch between anaolugue & digital viewing depending on what I`m watching.

DVDs are the bomb though!!!

julian.