Black Widow
01-22-2008, 05:43 PM
Thanks to Corey Dickey and PWInsider for the following:
Just saw your report about issues viewers watching Raw in standard definition had and thought I'd share some details, based on my knowledge of following digital/HD television for years now. It appears the cameramen were not framing the shots in what is known as 4:3 protect. 4:3 protect keeps all the necessarily action inside the center 1/3 of a 16:9 frame, so that standard definition viewers see everything important. Unless they letterbox the standard definition broadcast, 4:3 protect is the only way to ensure you do not have people cut out of shots. 4:3 protect is the way sports are currently done, especially football, for stations that have both high and standard definition broadcasts.
Unfortunately, the "pixelation" or blocking/tiling, is an unfortunate downside to high definition right now when theatrical lighting and flashes are involved. The mpeg-2 encoders currently can't handle it, even with the much larger bandwidth ceilings of HD. If you pay attention during other events you can see similar things, though I suggest not looking for it. Once you spot, you can't not notice it and it reduces your HD experience.
WWE just uses so much of of the lighting effects that it becomes more obvious in their programming. This problem is also more pronounced for the down-converted standard definition broadcast, especially if you are having to watch it on an HDTV that can't get USA-HD yet. I don't recall why it shows up more on a standard definition broadcast but the reason it looks bad on an HDTV viewing standard definition is because of the increased quality of the TV. The lower quality standard definition broadcasts and TVs essentially hide the flaws of the source video.
As for the wide shots, this goes back to 4:3 protect. Again, viewers watching in standard definition are seeing the middle 1/3 of the cameraman's view. The cameraman has to widen out further so that the wide shot appears in the middle 1/3, which would then give the high definition viewer an even wider shot because the left and right 1/3 would be visible to them.
Just saw your report about issues viewers watching Raw in standard definition had and thought I'd share some details, based on my knowledge of following digital/HD television for years now. It appears the cameramen were not framing the shots in what is known as 4:3 protect. 4:3 protect keeps all the necessarily action inside the center 1/3 of a 16:9 frame, so that standard definition viewers see everything important. Unless they letterbox the standard definition broadcast, 4:3 protect is the only way to ensure you do not have people cut out of shots. 4:3 protect is the way sports are currently done, especially football, for stations that have both high and standard definition broadcasts.
Unfortunately, the "pixelation" or blocking/tiling, is an unfortunate downside to high definition right now when theatrical lighting and flashes are involved. The mpeg-2 encoders currently can't handle it, even with the much larger bandwidth ceilings of HD. If you pay attention during other events you can see similar things, though I suggest not looking for it. Once you spot, you can't not notice it and it reduces your HD experience.
WWE just uses so much of of the lighting effects that it becomes more obvious in their programming. This problem is also more pronounced for the down-converted standard definition broadcast, especially if you are having to watch it on an HDTV that can't get USA-HD yet. I don't recall why it shows up more on a standard definition broadcast but the reason it looks bad on an HDTV viewing standard definition is because of the increased quality of the TV. The lower quality standard definition broadcasts and TVs essentially hide the flaws of the source video.
As for the wide shots, this goes back to 4:3 protect. Again, viewers watching in standard definition are seeing the middle 1/3 of the cameraman's view. The cameraman has to widen out further so that the wide shot appears in the middle 1/3, which would then give the high definition viewer an even wider shot because the left and right 1/3 would be visible to them.