As of this morning, CBC is broadcasting all its French and English news and current affairs programming in the 16:9 widescreen aspect radio.
The move means that every viewer with HDTV through Bell ExpressVu, Starchoice, other various cable suppliers (or off-air in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Vancouver) will be able to see widescreen programming without the distraction or interruption of segments formatted for standard definition (SD) 4:3 screen size.
The switchover will not affect SD viewers (i.e. regular TV sets).
About three million Canadians currently have widescreen sets, and that number is growing rapidly.
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Does this explain why the video of the first “national and international” story last night in Compass (the evening TV news for Prince Edward Island) looked like everyone’s head was 2/3 wider than it should have?
I suppose this is a good thing.
Now, unless I am very mistaken (which I hope I am not), I think I actually saw some graphics/text actually being cut off on the left edge of my 4:3 TV during one of The National segment yesterday or the day before.
I hope the good people at CBC will keep most of the good stuff inside the 4:3 area.
About friggin’ time.
“CBC is broadcasting … in the 16:9 widescreen aspect radio.”
Man, that’s quite a trick for radio.
Can anyone say whether special Studio and ENG Cameras are required to capture this new format? What are the costs to this massive conversion? We are culturally accustomed to a landscaped 8X11 1/2 foolscap for television delivery. Is 16:9 designed to mimick the 70mm cinema film projection formats? People obviously like 16:9 because of it’s a novelty and gets attention for the format alone. Are internet designers making a widescreen monitor to keep the gimmick going?
Q:When is a radio not a radio? A: When it’s a ratio. Phonics is phun, but spelling is telling!
“What are the costs to this massive conversion?” &c
As I understand it, a lot of the cameras currently in use are modular, so they’re not being completely replaced. No idea what the cost is though.
16:9 is closer to but not quite as wide as the usual cinematic formats IIRC. Depending on who you ask it’s either a plot by the manufacturers to get us all to buy new tellies or a creative decision to improve the medium of television.
As for the website, new page designs are wider because people’s average screen resolution is higher, and so it make sense to use the space. It’s not related to the 16:9 changeover (in fact I think a lot of our internet video will be using the 4:3 safe zone for now).
It’s not much that website page designs are consciously being elongated- although that may have to follow as telecomutation merges… I mean will there be a 16:9 wide screen monitor looming in the computer hardware marketplace so that Junior doesn’t develop carpal tunnel vision trying to make everything fit?
Walmart is using this format for it’s in-store promos… Walmart television…coming to an aisle near you.