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CBS Sports US Open graphics not 4:3 safe

My local CBS stations both have the widescreen flag on by default in Green Bay and Milwaukee...and despite that, my cable company still had to override that and put them in 4:3 in standard definition mode to avoid the grumps who don't want their Wheel or NCIS to have those bars. They even did it to the Movies! subchannel too for the Milwaukee station.
 
Cold reality #1: Tennis is aimed at an upscale audience. If you still cannot afford HDTV in 2013, you are not the target demographic.

Cold reality #2: Broadcasters are no longer pandering to the shrinking minority who only have standard-def sets.
 
Cold reality #3: You need to get an HD STB. They will output a 480i signal your tube TV can show, and with better resolution than viewing the SD channel on an SD only STB.

If enough people did this the cable co. could drop the SD redundant channels and free space for more HD.
 
ajc_trw said:
Cold reality #3: You need to get an HD STB. They will output a 480i signal your tube TV can show, and with better resolution than viewing the SD channel on an SD only STB.

If enough people did this the cable co. could drop the SD redundant channels and free space for more HD.
Click to expand...

Could the cable company get SD boxes that can automatically downconvert HD channels, how long would it take to roll all of them out, and would it be worth the expense?

(By the way, I have HD, but I'm still concerned with how shows look in 4x3.)
 
Why are they wasting time and $$ broadcasting in color? I still have a black and white TV. And what's this about FM broadcasting in stereo?
 
>>>Cold reality #2: Broadcasters are no longer pandering to the shrinking minority who only have standard-def sets. <<<

Warm Reality... Yes they are. Not everyone threw out perfectly good working TVs. And the unwritten rule is, you keep all the important visuals and graphics inside the 4:3 box for the time being. Hey, most folks watch TV via cable or satellite. But I haven't heard of any broadcaster turning off their over-the-air signal. They still spend millions of dollars each year maintaining towers and keeping their broadcast signals on the air, even if they know most viewers are picking up the station via cable or satellite.

I don't have any figures for how many conventional sets are still being watched. But I assume it's still a significant percentage. I don't intend to throw mine in the garbage until they stop working.
 
ESPN's US open graphics were not 4:3 safe either. Most ESPN and CBS graphics are safe for center-cut, so I'm wondering if this is not a coincidence.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
ESPN's US open graphics were not 4:3 safe either. Most ESPN and CBS graphics are safe for center-cut, so I'm wondering if this is not a coincidence.
Click to expand...

Not for baseball or their talk shows. I'm convinced that if it weren't for ABC's coverage of college basketball or the NBA, or even the three SEC basketball tournament games they show, and if it weren't for the need to provide a 4x3-safe image to local stations simulcasting MNF, none of ESPN's graphics would be 4x3-safe, though that's mostly because of how impressed I am with their baseball graphics.
 
I have one HD set and 3 CRT sets that I intend to keep as long as they work. I have problems with the CRT set cutting off letterboxed shows like the tennis coverage on CBS, and also with postage stamping (black bars on all 4 sides) like has been discussed here before. I've had the thought about putting the HD box on my main CRT set, but didn't know if it would work. I think I'm going to try it. Thanks for the info.
 
This isn't the same thing, but I've found when watching movies that credits,and even subtitles are getting cut off on the sides. I wouldn't mind letterboxing, and in fact, one movie was letterboxed briefly just after some important information had already been cut off on one side, which makes no sense.

The cable company sends the channels out this way. The stations involved would need a major antenna upgrade to be picked up.

http://radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?650851-TNT-Irritating-Things

Oh, goody. I get to edit.
 
Last edited:
PTBoardOp94 said:
ESPN's US open graphics were not 4:3 safe either. Most ESPN and CBS graphics are safe for center-cut, so I'm wondering if this is not a coincidence.
Click to expand...
ESPN's score bar in general (Not The Bottom Line) is BIG even for HD sets. One look at MNF is proof of this

Cheers & 73 :)
 
Gregg. said:
...But I haven't heard of any broadcaster turning off their over-the-air signal. They still spend millions of dollars each year maintaining towers and keeping their broadcast signals on the air, even if they know most viewers are picking up the station via cable or satellite.
...
Click to expand...

All full power TV stations are now broadcasting a 16:9 HD signal on their main channels. A few might be simul-casting a 4:3 SD signal on the .2 or .3 subchannels. But you need an HD receiver/converter to pick those up and view them on an obsolete CRT TV.

Check the news, more and more people are "cutting the cord" and going back to over the air free TV or watching shows a few days later over the internet.

Oh, the cost of powering an HD transmitter is less then an old analog transmitter.
 
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