Cinematography / Aspect: Next Food Network Star

Cafe Society
1

I’m watching NFNS on Food Network HD. I’m viewing it via a Dish Network feed.

What I notice on this show (and some others, but not all) is that there’s a weird distortion near the extreme edges. Is anyone else seeing this? It’s also not there during all shots. It’s as if some of the shots are shot 4:3 and are stretched to 16:9 rather than cropped or pillarboxed.

The setup on my end is “correct,” but I’ll spell it out for you in case you have doubts…
Dish receiver 1080i ->
Denon upscaling receiver 1080p ->
Philips TV, set to unscaled aspect ratio.

2

AFAIK, that’s exactly what they’re doing. I see the same distortion on HGTV a lot - it’s pretty obvious when the shot is of something like siding or tile.

3

That’s a wonky way to send the signal, but I get it. I suppose we’re another 10 years away from worrying about 4:3 safety.