Why are some of my HD cable stations in 4X3? (1 Viewer)

[Dave H]

Just got HD cable today. First, let me say it is AMAZING! I can't take my eyes off of the Discovery Channel, nor the Monday Night football game tonight!

My question is why are some of the HD channels in 4X3 instead of 1:78? I thought all of HD was in "widescreen."

Also, some seem to be in 1080i (Discovery, Football game, some HBO, etc.) while some look to be 480P?

Tombstone (Kurt Russell) was on earlier, but it didn't look 1080i --- more like 480. While Terminator 3 was on another station and it surely was 1080i. Is this common for them to mix them up like this?

 

[Matt Stone]

HD "channels" don't always broadcast in 1080i/720p all the time. There are always shows that aren't done in HD, and they're usually 480p (4x3 most of the time).

Tombstone was probably upconverted from a 480p source, where T3 on HBO was full 1080i.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Most HD stations will show 4:3 material upconverted to HD with black bars on the side. This just means the content was not originally filmed in HD. All true HD content is 16:9.



Actually, they do broadcast in 1080i/720p (my Toshiba locks in full for all HD content, if it was not HD, it would not lock), but the content is upconverted from standard 480i. This may be different in other areas, but my Boston area Comcast HD is 1080i/720p for all HD channels all the time.

 

[Matt Stone]

My cable box upconverts non-HD content and adds black bars, so in the case of non-HD material on HD channels, I wasn't sure where the upconversion was happening (on their end, or mine). Thanks for the correction.

 

[Matt Butler]

Thanks for this thread. I was wondering about this myself since I just got cable a week ago. I only have about 10 to 12 HD stations. And youre right about Discovery channel.