# Broadcasting in widescreen **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068 "2005-11-21T12:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kjkolb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kjkolb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjkolb)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/1 "2005-11-21T12:41:41Z")
Are TV and cable networks planning to broadcast in 16:9 to match widescreen HDTVs? I have a widescreen HDTV now, but the only channels I like to watch aren’t HDTV or widescreen and all of the types of stretching and zooming are very noticeable. Also, I rarely watch DVDs and the current HDTV offerings are awful. Because of this, I’m think of switching to an HDTV with a 4:3 ratio. However, if content will soon be available in widescreen, I’ll just wait. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/2 "2005-11-21T13:25:16Z")
The major broadcast networks are already broadcasting some shows in 16x9. My favorite example is Conan O’Brien who likes to make jokes about aspect ratios. But that’s because he’s a dork. ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/3 "2005-11-21T13:34:50Z")
Ummmmm… yes? Or is this some trick question I’m missing the nuance of? Or maybe a joke? I watch the following programs on a more or less regular basis and they’re _all_ broadcast in widescreen: _Arrested Development_ (Fox) _Prison Break_ (Fox) _Bones_ (Fox) _Reunion_ (Fox) _Lost_ (ABC) _Invasion_ (ABC) _Desperate Housewives_ (ABC) \*Monday Night Football]/i] (ABC) _My Name Is Earl_ (NBC) _The Office_ (NBC) _E-Ring_ (NBC) _Veronica Mars_ (UPN) _Nova_ (PBS) _Rome_ HBO NFL Football (at least 90% of the non-MNF games are in HD in my market) I also watch the following programs on a more or less regular basis and they’re _not_ broadcast in either HD or widescreen (at least in my market): _The Simpsons_ (Fox) _Family Guy_ (Fox) _American Dad_ (Fox) _Trading Spouses_ (Fox) _That 70s Show_ (Fox) _Over There_ (F\X) _Ghost Hunters_ (F\X) The first three programs are animated, so that makes at least a little bit of sense - _Family Guy_ will pretty much look the same whether it’s broadcast in HD or SD. Many programs on major networks that aren’t in HD are “reality”-type shows that require cameras to follow “live” people. Having said that, I don’t know why _Trading Spouses_ is in SD while _The Nanny_ is in HD. Most programs broadcast on cable networks are in SD, mainly because those networks aren’t yet broadcasting in HD (at least they aren’t on cable networks). However, I have noticed an increase in many cable nets showing letterboxed stuff (which is usually imported from the UK, which (AFAIK) broadcasts in 16:9 almost exculsively). So - the bottom line: a huge chunk - probably a significant majority - of the Big Four networks’ prime time programming is in widescreen HD. In fact, after 8pm on a weeknight, it’s hard to _miss_ widescreen on a major network. As for the “netlets” (WB and UPN), a lot of their programming is in widescreen HD too. As for regular cable networks, almost _none_ of their stuff is in widescreen, as only one of them (Discovery Channel) has an HD channel; even then, Discovery HD Theatre follows its own programming schedule and isn’t a “mirror” (like ABC HD is). Buying a 4:3 HDTV is stupid. A rough analogy would be buying a B&W TV back in the mid to late 1960s when only a few programs were broadcast in colour… _because_ only a few programs were broadcast in colour. Anyone that did that must have felt pretty stupid a couple of years later when 99.999% of anything broadcast was in colour! **NOTE:** The above information is based on Time Warner Cable in the Charlotte, NC area. Your local cable system might offer more (or fewer) channels in HD. For the big networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox - conversion to HD depends almost solely on the local affiliate, so WSLOW in your area might still be working on their HD conversion. ---
**Author:** ![kjkolb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kjkolb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjkolb)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/4 "2005-11-21T15:07:02Z")
I don’t watch the networks except for the Simpsons on Fox, so I didn’t know that they had primetime in widescreen. I’m surprised people who don’t like letterboxing didn’t go nuts (or did they?). I just watch the cable networks, regular and digital, so it’s been a bit of a letdown for me so far. Are they going to convert previously filmed shows as well (if it’s even possible)? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/5 "2005-11-21T15:24:35Z")
Also, if you have a HD **ready** tv that is 16:9, and they broadcast in HD widescreen, you still won’t get a HD widescreen picture unitl you get a HD tuner/receiver to go with the TV. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/6 "2005-11-21T16:15:12Z")
[Here](http://www.hdpictures.com/sched.htm) is a list of all the HD programming available right now. ---
**Author:** ![kjkolb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kjkolb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjkolb)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/7 "2005-11-21T16:15:42Z")
It has a built-in tuner. ---
**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/8 "2005-11-21T16:21:01Z")
> [@kjkolb](#): > > I’m think of switching to an HDTV with a 4:3 ratio. Do 16:9 TVs allow you to view 4:3 programming with black bands on the side? This seems the only satisfactory solution. ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/9 "2005-11-21T16:34:29Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Also, if you have a HD **ready** tv that is 16:9, and they broadcast in HD widescreen, you still won’t get a HD widescreen picture unitl you get a HD tuner/receiver to go with the TV. Or if you have a cable converter box or satellite receiver, as 97.431% of urban viewers do. Of course, if you live somewhere where you can’t get cable and don’t want satellite… then yeah, you’d need a tuner. ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/10 "2005-11-21T16:38:59Z")
I forgot to add _Weeds_ and _The L word_ to the list. It seems that most programming in HD from the premium channels is in widescreen. One notiable exception to this appears to be HBO’s _Entourage_ - which in 4:3 (but in HD IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/11 "2005-11-21T16:51:07Z")
> [@kjkolb](#): > > Are they going to convert previously filmed shows as well (if it’s even possible)? To HD? Maybe… To widescreen? Possibly. There is an HD-only network (HDNet) that shows reruns of _Hogan’s Heroes_ that have been converted to widescreen HD from film. Whether the series was originally filmed that way and matted for TV or if the screen has been subtly stretched, I dunno. My guess if that they’re using some kind of “wide stretching” technology, where the edges of the picture are stretched, leaving what’s in the center of the screen largely untouched. That’s just my WAG though. But the thing is, it takes a lot of time and effort to do this, so I doubt that the networks would even bother. Imagine if colourization of old B&W films\TV was accepted by the public - do you think the networks would have gone to all the trouble to colourize every old episode of \*Andy Griffith[/] and _Leave It To Beaver_? I doubt it. And given the huge amount of material they’d have to convert (versus the relatively few B&W shows that are still shown that they’d have to colourize) I _seriously_ doubt it… especially when your widescreen TV has the built-in option to zoom or stretch the picture. ---
**Author:** ![kjkolb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kjkolb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjkolb)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/12 "2005-11-21T17:05:44Z")
I just looked up some shows on DVD on Amazon and it said they were in widescreen, so I guess some shows are converted. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/13 "2005-11-21T17:22:11Z")
> [@kjkolb](#): > > I don’t watch the networks except for the Simpsons on Fox, so I didn’t know that they had primetime in widescreen. I’m surprised people who don’t like letterboxing didn’t go nuts (or did they?). I just watch the cable networks, regular and digital, so it’s been a bit of a letdown for me so far. The networks are broadcasting a lot of their prime-time shows in 16:9 as has been mentioned, but ONLY on their _digital_ transmitters. Most of the letterbox-hating technophobes are still using their old analog TV sets and never see the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Southessex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Southessex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southessex)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/14 "2005-11-21T17:33:31Z")
> [@kjkolb](#): > > I just looked up some shows on DVD on Amazon and it said they were in widescreen, so I guess some shows are converted. [nitpick] Many (most?) shows that have been filmed in the past few years were either filmed in widescreen in the first place for HD broadcast _or_ filmed that way for export to the UK and\or for DVD sets and matted for 4:3 TV (the first season of _24_, HBO’s _From The Earth To The Moon_). So the it’s actually the 4:3 version that’s “converted”, not the 16:9 one. Which shows did you look at on Amazon? [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![kjkolb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kjkolb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjkolb)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/15 "2005-11-22T07:03:58Z")
Sorry, I can’t remember which ones. They weren’t ones that I watch. I just saw an ad for one show’s season on DVD and went to check the aspect ratio. I found the second one from the “people who bought this, also bought” thing. That’s interesting about the widescreen to 4:3 conversion. I was wondering if they did that. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcasting-in-widescreen/332068/16 "2005-11-22T07:26:43Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > The networks are broadcasting a lot of their prime-time shows in 16:9 as has been mentioned, but ONLY on their _digital_ transmitters. Most of the letterbox-hating technophobes are still using their old analog TV sets and never see the difference. Well, they _might_ see the difference, if they’re watching a show like _24_, where it’s painfully obvious because the show is framed for widescreen and crudely cropped so that significant details are often simply missing from the edges of the 4:3 broadcast. [/doesn’t have the change to lay down for a widescreen TV but won’t watch _24_ on the local Fox affiliate because the mangling is too distracting and instead downloads the HD versions off the 'net and makes up for the theft later by faithfully buying the box sets]