Why are we seeing letter box in LCD TVs?

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sivanbalaji

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Letter box is OK on Std-Def TV with 16:9 content. But why it is coming in LCD TVs which are already 16:9 format. Because of this the picture shown on LCD TVs looks awkward i.e the humans are short and stout.Who's fault is this? The content provider (Channel) or broadcaster (DTH) or STB?
 
it can be both. But in most of the cases, channels are the only one who dont broadcast in 16:9 format.
 
its because the original content is in 16:9 format, but its broadcasted in SD which is a 4:3 format. On a regular CRT that shows letterboxing. On a LCD too it letterboxes because it is still a 4:3 broadcast. The signal is still the same. And the image is stretched to fit the wider screen. The letter boxes get stretched too. Where u notice the differences is in images where people, etc appear stout and shorter. In case of true 16:9 broadcast's you wont see the letter boxes or the stoutiness. Eg. Nat Geo HD. Since HD channels are the only ones with a 16:9 broadcast (AFAIK) I guess you will have to live with stretched images on rest of the channels.Fault lies with the broadcaster if you have to blame someone, but you really cant, when a large portion of the country watches television on SD 4:3 crts.
 
Yes emptymt, you may be partially right. Displaying the content is need not be based on the majority use. DTH is not in analogue age to do that categorically. Its digital. I think, contents can be aired in whatever the aspect ratio it was shot and the STB's to decide to put letter box or pillar bars based on aspect ratio of the display (TV) and the content.
 
well . . . for eg. i have an airtel HD box. it lets me choose which aspect ratio i want to view television. 16:9 or 4:3 etc . . if i select 4:3 then there are 2 huge vertical letterboxes on right and left sides and the picture resembles what it would appear as on a square crt. i use 16:9 and it is stretched to fit screen. so the STB does have the ability to choose aspect ratios. the problem lies in the broadcast signal and the aspect ratio it is transmitted in. to suggest that different signals should be broadcasted and an appropriate one could be selected by the STB sounds highly unfeasible (if possible at all). Consider the scarce spectrum resources while thinking of multiple broadcast signals and additional transponder cost which would eventually be passed on to consumers.
 
to suggest that different signals should be broadcasted and an appropriate one could be selected by the STB sounds highly unfeasible (if possible at all). Consider the scarce spectrum resources while thinking of multiple broadcast signals and additional transponder cost which would eventually be passed on to consumers.
Maintaining aspect ratio is NOT going to increase the bandwidth requirement. DTH operators are well known on how to handle the bandwidth of an channel or content.

Actually DTH operators are not worrying about the customer interest (quality) at all to their interest (add more number of customers) by having more number of channels.

Utilizing the scarce resource in an efficient way is another problem. Quality should not be traded off for that. The scarce resource can be shared among operators like they do it in Cell phone towers. They are doing it because it reduces their operational cost. But sharing TP is not going to give them any direct money. But it will lead to good quality what customer needs, intern may be more revenue/profit.
 
it sucks for me though. it is becoming very hard to find good quality CRT TVs in the market.
 
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