clore Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 I have my cable set to TCM HD. The image has black bars all around, not just top and bottom. I find it amusing that this is occurring just after TCM aired the letterbox promo. I get the heebie jeebies thinking that I'll have to blow up the image, making the faces less clear, in order to fill my screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 On Directv SD I see it as a letterbox designed for a standard 4:3 TV screen. I have to enlarge it to get a letterbox for a 16:9 screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clore Posted February 21, 2014 Author Share Posted February 21, 2014 That's what I'm getting. I had to hit the button on my TV remote to artificially expand it to fill my screen from side to side. This happened fairly recently during the airing of NOWHERE TO GO and about half-way through the film, the snafu was corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clore Posted February 21, 2014 Author Share Posted February 21, 2014 Once again, half-way through, the image was adjusted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blumphf Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Thanks a lot, TCM. THE MARK-- a film that you probably won't screen again for many years again (if ever), and you have to screw up it's presentation. It's not on dvd in the U.S either. Way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 What is it about the adjustment people dread so much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 >What is it about the adjustment people dread so much? When we enlarge the picture to make it fit our TV screens, the image becomes fuzzy and degraded, as if we were watching it on a 16 mm print. We can either watch that or watch a tiny picture with black bars on all 4 sides. Hey, we're in the 21st Century and we are receiving a 1910 movie image. Let's hope the guy turning the crank on the old movie projector doesn't get too tired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blumphf Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 To hamradio: I don't think you're getting what the complaint is exactly in this thread... The single screening of THE MARK was shown in two completely different formats: it started and ran for about an hour in a non-widescreen ratio that no adjustment on a set would fill to proper 2:35 format without distortion... And then someone at Turner woke up from their nap and saw it was being broadcast incorrectly and--in the middle--of the picture--hit the button to switch the broadcast to true cinemascope for WS TVs. And it's not the first time this has happened, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 That is odd, I myself has never encountered that on any channel. I get TCM on SD Directv. and Suddenlink. I only get local channels in HD and sometimes they broadcast a 4:3 ratio i.e. "The People's Court" on Fox 11 but its rare but never seen it switch from one format to another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Hi Ham, I also receive TCM on SD on Directv. Their normal old films are shown in the 4:3 center section of 16:9 LCD screens. The black bars on each side are unelectrified parts of the screen. Dead black natural screen side bars that are NOT transmitted to us by TCM. When TCM transmitts an SD letterbox image via Directv, we receive top and bottom black bars that ARE transmitted to us by TCM, plus we see the natural non-electrified black side bars of our 16:9 screens. This leaves only the center portion of the screen with a small narrow wide-screen image, something about the size of a Band-Aid. That is what they call "Letterbox". However, keep in mind that we see the two top and bottom Transmitted black bars, PLUS the two natural black TV screen side bars since we are only receiving a 4:3 image transmission from TCM. This is sometimes called a Windowbox screen. When we see this, our screens are only about 1/3 lit up with an image. We can enlarge that 1/3 image to fill out the width of our screen with a letterbox image, and then receive only the two transmitted top and bottom black bars, with no black side bars, BUT the image is fuzzy because it is being enlarged by our TVs. Evidently, HD TCM is supposed to naturally fill out the screen, left and right, with an automatic switching signal. I receive this signal on my broadcast HD channels and they automatically fill up the entire 16:9 TV screen for regular TV programs. An HD broadcast of a wide screen film is automatically enlarged before it reaches my TV, and there are only two thin top and bottom black bars, with no side black bars at all. The image is sharp since I don't have to enlarge it with my own TV setting. I'm just guessing, but apparently TCM HD is supposed to do the enlarging for the 16:9 screen automatically, but sometimes it does not automatically do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 TCM plays great on my HD set, I don't mind at all with the bars whether side to side (normal 4:3) or top to bottom (Letterbox). Right now, "Cops" on Spike is in Letterbox. It plays best with the setting. Ballerina movies are not my cup of tea besides I just finished building a Hotshot Phone Dialer so I've missed nothing. Edited by: hamradio on Feb 22, 2014 10:27 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeverlyBuzzby Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 TCM looks the same to me, but TBS is as you describe. I am a Cable One basic cable subscriber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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