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Spooked?

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XFool
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Spooked?

#23448

Postby XFool » January 16th, 2017, 11:17 am

Did anyone watch Spooks late last night on Drama TV?

I didn't really follow it when originally broadcast but did start watching the repeats on Drama, but they are on so late I don't usually see them. I did see the first few episode of the repeats from the start of the original series, but last night was the first I have watched for a while.

Wasn't Spooks originally from only a relatively few years ago? Two thousand and something? So... it must have originally been produced in widescreen, most likely now standard 16:9 unless it dates back further than I remember in which case early episodes could have been broadcast in the 14:9 'compromise' format.

The thing is, I still watch TV on an old analogue 4:3 CRT TV, using a digi-box. Last night's late edition of Spooks on Drama was broadcast in forced 4:3 format! While this neatly filled the screen of my old TV it obviously didn't look 'right'. Everything appeared squished and wrong, cars were foreshortened and when anybody got out of a tiny car they looked as if they were 7 feet tall.

I normally set my digibox to the 14:9 compromise format, although this is no longer really supported by the broadcasters it still works well enough. Try as I might, I couldn't change the display format on last night's Spooks - AFD On, AFD Off; 19:9, 14:9, Pan & Scan... - nothing made the slightest difference. It was 4:3 take it or leave it.

Now I know in say the late 1990s or early 2000s when widescreen TVs were still newish and the broadcast TV format had not yet settled down I can remember seeing such horrors on TV screens in showrooms. Usually a 4:3 picture ridiculously stretched to 14:9 or whatever, by incorrectly set up TVs etc. And I know different formatting approaches have been taken by different broadcasters - BBC parliament long ago fixed on 16:9 come what may (but not 'forced') so they even broadcast old 1970s 4:3 election footage in-screen at 16:9; but as it isn't forced I can Pan & Scan it to correctly fit my old TV as originally broadcast. Old 1980s favourites like Minder are normally broadcast to fit 4:3.

But, from memory, this is the first time I ever recall seeing a programme broadcast on national TV at an incorrect format which was forced on the viewer. What went wrong? Programming supervised by a very young recent recruit who was under the illusion that as their dad liked it it must be from the ark and set some switch wrongly?

I suppose I should be asking the Drama channel for the answer! Anyone else ever recall seeing anything like this?

Moderator Message:
Moved topic to appropriate board - chas49

Breelander
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Re: Spooked?

#23490

Postby Breelander » January 16th, 2017, 1:18 pm

XFool wrote:Wasn't Spooks originally from only a relatively few years ago? Two thousand and something? So... it must have originally been produced in widescreen...


Yes, Series 1, episode 1 was first broadcast in 2002, aspect ratio 1.78:1 (16:9)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0707350/tec ... tt_dt_spec

I've seen this 'problem' before, particularly on the smaller commercial channels that rebroadcast BBC output (which despite being widescreen, they only get a 4:3 copy). I solved it by getting a widescreen TV :)

There seems to be a habit on BBC4 (which shows a lot of back-catalogue) of broadcasting 4:3 material as a 16:9 picture with the 4:3 material placed in the centre and black bands added to either side.

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Re: Spooked?

#23511

Postby XFool » January 16th, 2017, 2:47 pm

Thanks Breelander.

But....why would there be any 4:3 copies of an original 16:9? For some export markets at a lower price, perhaps.
Curiously, when I saw the original couple of episodes some while ago now, I don't remember this problem then. Even 'funnier', last nights episode contained a couple of multi screen sequences...

Not certain why your widescreen TV cures it if it's sourced as 4:3. If it does that means it must surely be in 16:9 to start with, so why does that force 4:3 on a 4:3 TV? After all, the TV signal doesn't 'know' what size screen my TV is and my digibox only 'knows' what I tell it!

Breelander wrote:There seems to be a habit on BBC4 (which shows a lot of back-catalogue) of broadcasting 4:3 material as a 16:9 picture with the 4:3 material placed in the centre and black bands added to either side.

Are you sure that's really BBC4? I haven't noticed that. They do with old stuff within a current programme, but surely not whole original programmes? I do know that is definitely what BBC Parliament do and they also dropped the 14:9 format early on.

I really do not understand the difference between when these formats are user selectable and when they are 'forced' and you cannot do anything about it via the digibox. I can turn AFD On/Off at my box, but it made no difference last night.

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Re: Spooked?

#23522

Postby Breelander » January 16th, 2017, 3:40 pm

XFool wrote:
Breelander wrote:There seems to be a habit on BBC4 (which shows a lot of back-catalogue) of broadcasting 4:3 material as a 16:9 picture with the 4:3 material placed in the centre and black bands added to either side.

Are you sure that's really BBC4? I haven't noticed that..


Yes. I can copy the digital recordings from my Freeview PVR to a USB. There's no processing in the PVR, these are a straight copy of the original digital signal as broadcast. I have to use video editing software to crop the video and extract the 4:3 picture from the middle.

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Re: Spooked?

#23637

Postby XFool » January 16th, 2017, 11:53 pm

Spooks is on Drama!

It has returned to 'normal'. The picture is well formed, it's being transmitted at 16:9 but I can do what I like with it. They are not transmitting an AFD signal.

There must have been some sort of technical cock up last night.

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Re: Spooked?

#23638

Postby XFool » January 17th, 2017, 12:06 am

...although this is a repeat of a repeat of the first episode. So who knows? ;)

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Re: Spooked?

#30041

Postby XFool » February 8th, 2017, 11:46 pm

Hah!

Just watching a repeat of Spooks on Drama. It is the same episode I saw when I first posted on this thread.

This time it is being transmitted correctly. :-)


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