Canterbury TV goes widescreen, freeview later this year
Canterbury TV began broadcasting widescreen as of 10am Tuesday 11th January on their analogue frequency. This is in preparation for going onto the freeview platform later this year, though a date for this has yet to be confirmed.
Technically, what this means for CTV viewers:
- if you have an old 4:3 screen tv, not much you can do, the picture will appear a little sequeezed but you'll get use to it. Eventually you'll want to buy a new widescreen TV in any case.
- if you have a 16:9 widescreen TV, then you should be able to change the aspect ratio using a button on your TV remote, something labelled "Aspect" or "P Size" or some ilk (look up the TV manual if you can't figure it out) and pressing the button consecutively until you get the 16:9 ratio.
Note that the format for CTV is not yet consistent for every program, and you may have to change the aspect depending on what you are watching. For instance, I've noticed the DW broadcasts work better with Zoom1 aspect. However, these inconsistencies should probably be ironed out in a few weeks. Also, when switching to other analogue channels, you may have to change the aspect ratio again. This is because other analogue channels still broadcast in other formats at this stage.
Living in Canterbury, I do not know the progess towards widescreen and freeview for local channels in other areas. Anyone from another part of the country who wishes to give an update on this, please do so here.
source: http://www.throng.co.nz/ctv/canterbury-tv-goes-widescreen-freeview-later-year
