EPL Talk - Latest Comments in Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

DaveMo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:37:43 -0000

I'm watching Setanta Sports News right now (the 5:00 PM program), and they are broadcasting the entire signal "squished" - touch one button on the widescreen TV ("stretch'), and you get a beautiful 16:9 picture. I'm not sure if it's just certain news programs, but I have noticed several times recently that Setanta is broadcasting like this. Not matches (yet), but one can hope.

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Carefree in L.A. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:58:51 -0000

Its in HD and 16x9 at Barneys Beanery in West Hollywood....how are they getting that?

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

John — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:23:47 -0000

'Here’s the response from Setanta Sports:
There’s no such broadcasting format in the USA as 16:9 Standard Definition. All USA Standard Definition broadcasting must be in 4:3. It cannot be 16:9.'

That statement is incorrect.
NBC for example have done it for years. Regular TV shows, and Wimbledon tennis (which only went HD in 2008).

Show it with the black bars.

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Brian — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:55:18 -0000

It is not only Setanta but other channels like Fox's football (soccer) channel. There is no reason they can not display the whole picture (16:9) and simply use the letterbox format. This is very common practice throughout Europe. It is inexcusable to say that we are just a SD broadcast station and can do nothing about it. There are times during EVERY game where one just simply misses the action or we hear the commentators discuss something that is simply cut off in the 4:3 picture. Now if they could just get rid of those stupid on-screen station I.D. monograms!

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Martin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:52:39 -0000

Well I am glad that I am not the only person that hates the way Setanta is cropping a 16:9 image and losing half the picture. The news is a joke with one presenter missing. I've also noticed that on a few occasions EPL games have started with a 16:9 image squashed into a 4:3 picture, so I switch my HDTV to stretch mode and we have widescreen for a few minutes until someone at Setanta catches on and switches the signal so its cropped again. I was recently in the UK watching games on SD tv sets but in widescreen so I dont know why they cannot do that here.

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Greg — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:51:38 -0000

And the answer from Setanta that 16:9 standard definition tv doesn't exist in North America is just wrong.

Deutsche Welle (German News) is broadcast on digital cable in Canada as an SD digital channel that is 16:9 (Rogers Digital Cable - Channel 195 in Toronto). All of the set top boxes automatically display the channel full screen on an HDTV and letterbox it for older 4:3 sets.

I've already sent Setanta a note about this since their Setanta Sports News is an absolute joke considering much of the graphics and even one of the presenters often aren't visible!!

And if this isn't possible, I agree with posters above... just letterbox the 4:3 signal and that way everyone misses nothing and those with HDTVs can just zoom in.

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Panda — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:02:53 -0000

Another thing they could is to show the game squished. While it's not appeasing to the eye, cramming a 16x9 image into a 4x3 would probably be their best bet. For users who have a 4x3 screen, it would look weird but they would get the entire image. Also, most likely, a good portion of the country (and the Setanta subscribers) own 16x9 televisions which has the option of unstretching the image and show it in its proper aspect ratio.

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

eplnfl — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:44:12 -0000

I would just be happy if it was on Comcast in any size!

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

Jesse — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:22:14 -0000

Lots of shows are letterboxed, including just about everything on the discovery channels. No reason why Setanta can't do the same for their broadcasts here.

Re: Why Isn’t Setanta Sports Available In Widescreen Format?

DaveMo — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:17:06 -0000

What about transmitting the widescreen standard def programming in letterbox (like some US tv shows do - such as E.R. and The Sopranos, iirc). It might take someone at Setanta flipping another switch at times, but it would sure beat the crappy way their signal is coming across now - the highlight reels often show the goal mouth with the ball going in, but not who's shot the ball; my son and I were wondering why their World Cup Qualifer, Group Tables showed "number of games played" and "goals for", but not "points earned" - - that is, until we realized the rightmost column(s) were getting cut off the screen.