HD black bars no black bars

[allenn]

The Weather Channel is in HD, but the live host part of the program has vertical black bars and the graphics for the Local Weather has no black bars. Other HD channels may or may not have black vertical bars. Why? I thought HD was always 16:9 wide screen.

[veryoldschool]

The Weather Channel is in HD, but the live host part of the program has vertical black bars and the graphics for the Local Weather has no black bars. Other HD channels may or may not have black vertical bars. Why? I thought HD was always 16:9 wide screen.
While the HD aspect ratio is 16:9, not all of the content [cameras] is. A lot of "HD" for the newer channels is stretched 4:3.

[allenn]

So it is HD with an aspect ratio of 4:3? I thought HD was suppose to be 16:9?

[veryoldschool]

So it is HD with an aspect ratio of 4:3? I thought HD was suppose to be 16:9?
To put it another way: it's upconverted SD