http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=698777

Quote :

"ESPN to Run Wide-Screen College Football Channel Risks Irking Standard-Def Viewers to Promote HD Content (TVWeek.com)---In a sports programming first, ESPN will add letterbox bars to its Thursday Night Football series of standard-definition college telecasts to promote the high-definition experience to viewers who lack HD service. The weekly program will add black bars on the upper and lower portion of the screen to simulate the expansive picture ratio familiar to viewers with widescreen HD sets. Though standard-definition viewers will not be able to see a true high-definition picture-which has up to 1080 lines of resolution versus standard definition's 480-the image will hin Mr. Burns said the concern has been discussed internally and ESPN decided the benefits of promoting HD are worth some calls to the switchboard. "We get calls on everything we do," Mr. Burns said. "You can't do new things without breaking some old models. It's inevitable." Most HD programming is shot in widescreen and telecast two different ways: A widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio presentation on a network's HD feed, and a traditional 4:3 "center cut" presentation that crops off the sides of the image for standard-definition signals. A very small number of entertainment series-mainly NBC's "ER" and "The West Wing," and HBO's "The Sopranos"-have bucked convention and aired a letterbox version on SD signals. In 2001, "West Wing" and "ER" executive producer John Wells explained to the Akron Beacon Journal that he opted for letterboxing simply because it looked "classier." But some fans of the dramas were put off. "If I want a letterbox frame," wrote one viewer on the CHUD pop culture message boards, "I'll go make a f***ing movie." As for "The Sopranos," an HBO spokesperson acknowledged that some SD viewers complain about the formatting. Letterboxing a traditional sport like college football could present a greater challenge to gaining viewer acceptance than letterboxing contemporary urbanite dramas. But Mr. Burns pointed out that in addition to promoting HD, there are production and aesthetic advantages to making the switch for ESPN's growing HD audience. When shooting a program for both wide and full screen, for instance, ESPN has to ensure all graphics and action is contained within the 4:3 square center of the screen, lest SD viewers miss crucial information. By adopting a widescreen presentation format for both SD and HD airings, producers can feel free to utilize the entire 16:9 field. HD viewers will notice graphics appearing at the far ends of the screen and more action shots taking advantage of their entire display. ESPN has been arguably the most aggressive cable network in promoting high definition, having launched HD simulcast networks for its flagship network and ESPN2. The Thursday Night Football letterbox strategy kicks off Aug. 31 for a South Carolina vs. Mississippi State match and will run for 13 games through Nov. 30. "

Awesome news....finally some proper framing for high definition sports broadcasts. Hopefully this eventually becomes less of an experiment and more of a norm.

7/14/2006 6:45:50 PM

Yeah but youre still having to pay for it.

Thats what sucks if you ask me

7/14/2006 7:48:34 PM

couldn't they show 4:3 on standard and 16:9 on hi-def? would it be that hard to set up another computer to overlay the scoreboard further left?




the answer is yes, they could, and no, it wouldn't be hard. but it's more profitable to waste space on everybody's tv so they have to pay for the premium content.

7/14/2006 7:54:45 PM

so now ESPN is telling the average blue collar college football fan they need to go buy a big screen HD TV. 16:9 is horrible on Standard screens, they say ER which is 4:3, this is gonna piss off a bunch of people I think.

7/14/2006 10:36:32 PM

I think this is great. I think sports look better in 16:9 anyways.

7/14/2006 10:46:33 PM

Of course it looks better. But I don't really agree with this decision just yet. I have a 27 inch tv and that's about the limit I'd want to see anything letterboxed. Anything smaller (which is still the majority of american households) and it really makes it hard to see.

7/14/2006 10:50:25 PM

fuckers, why do they gotta force their crap on everybody

7/14/2006 10:51:52 PM

Hopefully they'll run all their damn ads and tickers and all that other bullshit in the blacked out section. But I doubt it...

7/14/2006 10:56:53 PM

and have non-stop coverage of the game/games that are on at that time.

Recently they have started one major game, SEC or ACC on thursday night, and one smaller game, C-USA or MAC, they could cover the other during TV timeouts or something and do all the adds in the letterbox area

7/14/2006 11:01:28 PM

god damnit

7/15/2006 12:56:14 AM

i could really not give a shit, since im always watching ESPNHD.. never SD ESPN, i do like it though since not everything will be crammed into the middle

7/17/2006 1:19:54 AM

well, fuck. did this actually happen?

[Edited on August 31, 2006 at 8:18 PM. Reason : .]

8/31/2006 8:16:19 PM

nope

8/31/2006 8:20:37 PM

No, unfortunately ESPN changed their mind on this decision a month ago

8/31/2006 8:25:07 PM

damn it i forgot about this

8/31/2006 8:27:25 PM