The BOX going 16x9 widescreen (WWE Related)

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DjShadow

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Topic # 25715 29-Aug-2008 21:00

Funny where you find out information on things, this from www.nzpwi.co.nz

Sky Television have today informed NZPWI that the BOX goes Widescreen (16:9) on Tuesday, September 9.

Sky are currently in the process of arranging getting their WWE programming delivered in Widescreen format, but it may not be immediately available. There are a number of logistical issues SKY are currently working out - one of the main ones being that Sky share their WWE feed with Australia, which is currently airing in standard 4:3 format. If Australia can not receive the 16:9 feed, alternate arrangements need to be made between Sky and WWE which means there will be many other factors to take into consideration.

Sky are in contact with WWE and their Australian counterparts and hope to have an update on the 16:9 situation within the next week.

On a related note, Sky Box Office have no immediate plans to go widescreen on pay-per-view events. This is largely due to the additional bandwidth required for the broadcast. The good news is though, when they eventually do go widescreen (which is no time soon), they'll be going High Definition at the same time.

eXDee

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Reply # 160816 29-Aug-2008 22:10

The more go widescreen the better. Its a pain having to swtich the TV between 4:3 and 16:9

sbiddle

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Reply # 160825 29-Aug-2008 22:45

eXDee: The more go widescreen the better. Its a pain having to swtich the TV between 4:3 and 16:9

It would be good if Sky could at least follow what now seems to be accepted industry practice and transmit all content in fulltime 16:9 frames. At least 4:3 content doesn't mess up TV's that automatically change themselves.

richms

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Reply # 160827 29-Aug-2008 22:47

They dont need to do that, people just need to get the mysky hdi which seems to do it for you.

Richard rich.ms

allstarnz

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Reply # 161105 31-Aug-2008 22:10

DjShadow:
On a related note, Sky Box Office have no immediate plans to go widescreen on pay-per-view events. This is largely due to the additional bandwidth required for the broadcast.

They have enough bandwidth to run 14 PPV movie channels in widescreen, but not enough to put their other Box Office channel into widescreen? Sounds like a crock of s__t to me.

Can someone explain to me how a 16:9 broadcast consumes more bandwidth than a 4:3 broadcast? Surely the bitrate is entirely irrelevant?

eXDee

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Reply # 161114 31-Aug-2008 23:18

Well widscreen is at a guess 20-30% bigger than a 4:3 image, so at the same bitrate the quality of the widescreen image will look worse, hence them requiring to put it up, though it seems they dont have any standards for quality. Its just like how a large HD image requires a higher bitrate to look good.

richms

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Reply # 161122 31-Aug-2008 23:45

Except that the resolution of the image is independant of the aspect ratio, its just a matter of them needing to load things into their playout system correctly so that it will show widescreen.

Richard rich.ms

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Reply # 161137 1-Sep-2008 07:56

Sky's resolution for 4:3 channels is 544x576i. This needs increasing, with corresponding increase in bandwidth, to 720x576i.

Ross

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richms

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Reply # 161326 1-Sep-2008 17:01

It doesn't need increasing, you would like it increased, big difference there ;)

It seems that as long as there is moving things on the screen that are vaguely recognizable that sky are content selling it bitrate and resolution be damned.

Richard rich.ms

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Reply # 161329 1-Sep-2008 17:12

I mean, it needs increasing, when aspect ratio is changed from 4:3 to 16:9. That is what Sky do, they change resolution and increase bitrate when they change the channel to 16:9.

Ross

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