# Why don't programmes fit on my TV any more?



## HareBrain (Feb 12, 2011)

I have a CRT TV, a Sony Trinitron flat-screen, with a "normal" 4:3 ratio.

The last couple of years, I've noticed that even programmes that I thought were broadcast in 4:3, like BBC1 and BBC2 output, don't fit, either through terrestrial or Freeview. My TV chops off the extreme left and right of the picture (very obvious with captions).

Anyone else noticed this? Has something gone wrong with my telly, or has something changed in the broadcast itself, which is perhaps now aimed only at those with LCD or plasma screens? Is 4:3 not 4:3 any more?


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## Mouse (Feb 12, 2011)

I noticed this too! I've got an old massive square TV, so thought that was the reason. Can't see anything on the left or right hand sides!


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## HareBrain (Feb 12, 2011)

OK, since it's not just my TV, I bothered to do some Googling, and it seems most progs are now made and broadcast in 16:9. I'd be interested to know what %age of TV viewers are still using 4:3 tube TVs, in which case the BBC etc would be broadcasting stuff the majority of its viewers are unable to watch properly. Bah! And Gah! come to that.


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## The Ace (Feb 12, 2011)

My cable's supposed to allow you to adjust the ratio, but it seldom works.


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## alchemist (Feb 12, 2011)

My TV can present me with different ratios, but still the signal can be truncated. I noticed it last week during the rugby when the score in the top-left hand corner was cut off.


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## sloweye (Feb 12, 2011)

Same on ours. you either loose the top and bottom of the picture, watch it in a tiny box in the center of the wide screen or have everyone on the screen stretched like they're in a carnival mirror (this also happens while watching 'widescreen' films on the 'widescreen' TV... where the logic in that?)


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## alchemist (Feb 12, 2011)

sloweye said:


> (this also happens while watching 'widescreen' films on the 'widescreen' TV... where the logic in that?)


 
Exactly! Which was one of the reasons I got a "widescreen" TV.

(maybe there's something very simple we're all missing)


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## sloweye (Feb 12, 2011)

alchemist said:


> Exactly! Which was one of the reasons I got a "widescreen" TV.
> 
> (maybe there's something very simple we're all missing)



Yeah, i'm missing my big old wodden surround Sony with the clunky buttons and no remote


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## Ursa major (Feb 12, 2011)

sloweye said:


> Yeah, i'm missing my big old wodden surround Sony with the clunky buttons and no remote


 
Perhaps the fault lies in what you're throwing at it. (Or what you've been drinking beforehand.  )


I sometimes wonder if the problem is that those in the TV company adjusting the image for 4:3 screens do so in an abstract way, i.e. they don't actually check that what they're displaying, or if they do, they're not using a real 4:3 screen but a simulation of one.


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