Right now,

Right now,

The stations broadcasting digital broadcast some stuff as SD with a 4:3 Aspect ratio and black bars appear on either side of the picture on a widescreen TV unless you stretch the picture on the set. Other stuff is broadcast in HD with a full 16:9 aspect ratio that fills the entire wide screen w/o changing the fill on the TV sets. Often shows are broadcast in 16:9 HD but commercials as 4:3 SD, and by 16:9 TV flips back and forth with side bars or not. The digital signal is noticably sharper than the analog signal broadcast by the same station (I can compare the two directly) but other than the aspect ratio I see little sharpness difference between the SD 4:3 signal and the HD 16:9 singnal. I am making these comparisons on a 32 inch panasonic LCD and I might see more difference on a 50 inch set.

broadcast HDTV is coming in just like color TV did 40+ years ago. Initially only a small % of programming is done in HD but over time an ever larger share of the signals broadcasted will be 16:9 HD

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - This may be a silly question But what will the aspect ratio be after the digital conversion in 09? - artemus 19:20:09 05/02/08 (22)

Hopefully, 4:3 broadcasts will disappear to be replaced with 16:9. - oscar 06:00:21 05/05/08 (5)

RE: Hopefully, 4:3 broadcasts will disappear to be replaced with 16:9. - Jim in Blacksburg 09:43:13 05/11/08 (0)

RE: Hopefully, 4:3 broadcasts will disappear to be replaced with 16:9. - racerguy 06:23:41 05/05/08 (3)

"Note that most commercials are still in 4:3, even the ones shown on "HD" channels." - David Aiken 00:27:08 05/06/08 (2)

RE: "Note that most commercials are still in 4:3, even the ones shown on "HD" channels." - blue_z 01:25:34 05/06/08 (1)

That's something of an unfair benchmark - racerguy 22:17:05 05/07/08 (0)

Right now, - DavidLD 09:02:21 05/03/08 (0)

Transmission will all be digital but not all digital will be - Wendell Narrod 19:45:21 05/02/08 (14)

They'll do what they are doing now - Jack G 16:31:59 05/03/08 (0)

It's not a hi-def vs standard def issue - David Aiken 23:22:49 05/02/08 (12)

I'm not aware of SD material shot in 16x9 aspect in the - Wendell Narrod 06:51:47 05/03/08 (11)

there is none - Joe Murphy Jr 17:04:11 05/03/08 (2)

Questionâ€¦ - David Aiken 20:05:08 05/03/08 (1)

you're asking about a different topic - Joe Murphy Jr 23:56:06 05/03/08 (0)

Every "widescreen" DVD (nt) - racerguy 07:39:11 05/03/08 (7)

Not really. They begin life as film which is certainly - Wendell Narrod 08:00:21 05/03/08 (6)

Yes really - racerguy 20:52:52 05/03/08 (5)

I see it around in the USA too, a lot. nt - clarkjohnsen 09:20:28 05/05/08 (0)

My question was about any original SD material shot - Wendell Narrod 07:58:39 05/04/08 (3)

Europe has done SD widescreen for quite some time - racerguy 10:44:53 05/04/08 (2)

Anyone who says it's not done "anywhere" - Wendell Narrod 12:56:54 05/04/08 (1)

RE: Anyone who says it's not done "anywhere" - racerguy 13:33:34 05/04/08 (0)

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Right now, - DavidLD 09:02:21 05/03/08 (0)

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