Widescreen Wonderment from UKTV!

Well, well! UKTV has, since 1st February, started broadcasting in widescreen format. It's not great stuff yet, in that some programmes are still in a shoved-up setting (called letterbox - I wonder why?) but it's getting there. Commercials are now widescreen (16:9) and more recent productions from the BBC. However, there are glitches, when the automatic transfer from 16:9 to 4:3 doesn't work. I get Virgin Media so can't verify other platforms, but I understand it's similar for Sky and Freeview.

It had to happen. After all, advertisers were spending money on widescreen adverts and viewers are buying widescreen TVs. So well done UKTV! Good start, just needs polishing up in places.

Read More

Virgin Media being courted by rich suitor

Anyone on cable in Birmingham has had more suppliers than hot dinners, it seems. Just as we've been getting used to the rebrand from Telewest to Virgin, along comes the money bags group, Carlyle, with a takeover bid. Am I bovvered? Well, if they use their coffers to get UKTV up off their backsides to give us proper widescreen TV then the answer is NO. Currently all UKTV programmes come in a 4:3 format with widescreen programmes squeezed into the frame! Apparently it's all down to lack of cash. That should not be the case with Carlyle! (UKTV is partly owned by FlexTech, in turn part of Virgin Media.)

The viewer was just getting some benefits from Virgin Media it seemed. Let's hope the full package is yet to come.

Read More

UKTV goes widescreen and then.....

Yes, folks, UKTV went widescreen for the World Cup but have now reverted to type. Their thinly veiled contempt for the viewing public is down to them not wishing to pay for the cost of broadcasting in the 16:9 format.

From their own website! These comments make good reading, but in fairness to UKTV they have posted them. Couldn't they just be a little less cheapskate in the whole venture?

UKTV Messageboard

Read More

Welcome to Widescreen!

Part of the use of this blog is for me to keep an eye on cheapskate broadcasters! Yesterday, I was watching Sky News and noticed that the images were showing people as if they had some kind of dire disease. A very mishapening one at that! Then I realised Sky News had changed. It had gone widescreen and had given itself a really good overhaul. However, nobody had told Telewest apparently who were blithely broadcasting these widescreen pictures in 4:3 format! Later in the day the penny dropped and all was fixed.

So, Sky News has joined the world of widescreen. An interesting thing is, though, that the commercials seem to revert back to 4:3 so if I were an advertiser on Sky News I'd feel it wasn't being present properly, but, hey, it's moving in the right direction.

Also, a mention for ABC1, a channel I don't normally watch, but has gone widescreen, if only for the ads (they show mostly 4:3 format programmes)!

I think it is important that, if the likes of Comet and Dixon are promoting widescreen TVs in their stores, the broadcasters play the game by providing the service to go with the sets. So come on UKTV, its your turn now!

http://www.sky.com/skynews/home

Read More

Freesat coming soon!

The BBC and ITV have joined forces to introduce a new satellite service called Freesat. The idea of this is because the government is wanting to switch off the analogue TV signals, region-by-region, by 2012. This is the system the UK currently operates through the mast transmitting system.

Freesat will compete with Sky and cable for viewers. One interesting point is that the existing Freeview service, using the mast system, cannot provide more channels than it is currently doing and 25% of UK homes cannot get the signal anyway. Satellite offers greater channel choice and coverage.

Another thing to emerge from all this is that widescreen TV is apparently more expensive to transmit than 4:3 ratio. This would suggest why so many channels are currently transmitting programmes made in widescreen format in a weird variety of settings based on 4:3! Come on, let's have the real thing!

Read More

Widescreen Wipeout!

I have some pet niggles! In that I am probably not alone. One of them is that, having bought a widescreen TV (not the most expensive, but that's not the point here!) I now find that most cable stations can't be bothered to broadcast in widescreen format. The programmes they are showing, or repeating from the BBC in most cases, have been made in widescreen.

The biggest culprits are UKTV, which the BBC has an interest in, so they should know better, and Challenge TV, which shows "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" in some box like setting. The hapless viewer is either forced to keep the picture on permanent zoom which corrupts the picture quality and cuts out the two questions at the bottom of the picture, or watch a small version in the middle of the screen!!

Why do these TV companies think it OK to show their programmes in such a sub-standard way? Is it cost savings they are after? Surely not! We pay cable/satellite charges and sit through the commercials, so money can't be a problem. If it is, why have so many channels such as UK Style +1 when there is already the same channel showing programmes an hour earlier! The electrical stores are selling more widescreen TVs now. Should they carry a consumer warning? "Not all programmes will fit this TV. Buy only if you realise you are in for a shock!"

If you think the TV Stations should shape up by shaping the pictures properly, let them know!

UKTV
http://www.uktv.co.uk/?uktv=standarditem.index&aID=528249

Challenge TV
http://www.challengetv.co.uk/registration/contact.html

Read More