pctechguide.com

Widescreen Digital Video

There are quite a few digital channels transmitting widescreen programmes and movies for viewers with a widescreen television and the general trend is clearly towards the introduction of widescreen as the standard picture size for digital TV. The digital receiver will have an option in the set-up menu to select the type of television it is connected to – either 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen. The MPEG decoder in the receiver or set-top box is signalled when it is receiving a widescreen transmission and processes it in a way which is dependent on the display it is feeding. If the display is 16×9, no processing takes place but if the display is 4×3, the decoder will zoom or crop depending on its capability and on the viewer preference expressed in the installation setup:

  • it may take a centre cut-out, with the same height but severely cropping the sides
  • it may display a 16×9 letterbox, with all the picture but with large black bands top and bottom
  • it may crop a bit off either side, taking the ratio aspect down to just 14:9, leaving somewhat thinner black lines top and bottom
  • it may automatically distort a 14:9 cropped picture to fit a 4:3 screen.

In the UK the term “anamorphic” is used to differentiate a 16×9 widescreen picture which fills the whole frame, from a 16×9 letterbox with blank lines at the top and bottom of the frame. In the USA the terminology used is 16×9 full frame and 16×9 letterbox respectively.

 

Filed Under: Digital Video

Latest Articles

Price Slicer Removal

Price Slicer may seem like a useful piece of software you can use to save money while shopping on the Internet. However, it is much more hassle than it is worth. They even tout the slogan of "Keep more money in your pocket with Price Slicer". This is a piece of adware that will end up causing more … [Read More...]

DVD Formats

Not unlike the different flavors of CDs, there are five physical formats, or books, of DVD: DVD-ROM is a high-capacity data storage medium DVD-Video is a digital storage medium for feature-length motion pictures DVD-Audio is an audio-only … [Read More...]

How to Delete Google Chrome Cookies in Just Five Minutes

There have probably been many instances when you were trying to solve a problem with your Internet connection on your computer and someone recommended that you delete cookies from your browser. If you're not familiar with this term, then you should familiarize yourself with it. In this article … [Read More...]

Guides

Recent Posts

Windows Defence Counsel

Windows Defence Counsel If you've found this page, very likely you've been infected with Windows Defence Counsel. You must be wondering how something … [Read More...]