SNL Broadcast cropped for SD, other NBC shows to follow ?

[danjfoley]

IF anyone else has noticed, SNL started broadcasting a cropped version of the HD show for display on SD.

The used to show the full HD source with pillerbars or the blackbars.

Now this might not be so much of a problem if important content didn't end up outside the 4x3 box. But on SNL, it does all the time.

Anytime they have a title on the screen, it uses the full 16x9 box, and the 4x3 broadcast cuts if off on the left and right. You can't read it.

During "Weekend update" you get the news "picture" that it either in the upper right or upper left cut off.

I think this might be a battle between the network and the show producers. SNL may be saying "f you" to nbc, by continuing to produce their show for 16x9 and not caring one bit about cut off in 4x3. If NBC is going to show all 16x9 cropped to 4x3, they would have to tell all their shows to film inside the 4x3 box. If so SNL is ignoring this.

And for good reason. It's moronic for NBC to suddenly go from widescreen with pillar bars to 4x3 cropped. What they had was fine, and preferred even.

What they have now for snl makes it unwatchable in SD.

Then again maybe this is something the network is doing on purpose as a "go out an get yourself an HD tv, because we are not going to support you SD people anymore".

I have one HD and one SD right now. Watch almost everything in the HD, but sometimes end up watching the SD.

[tftc22]

I think it was your local station's choice. I turned to SNL a couple times last night during World Series commercials and SNL was shown in widescreen on my local SD station.

Sometimes local stations make strange decisions on which formats they use. For example, my local ABC uses a 4x3 cropped version of the HD feed instead of the provided 4x3 SD feed for college football games. The difference is that the HD feed puts the start of the bottom line a little more to the left so you can't read the category (NCAAF, MLB, etc.) when the HD feed is centered and cropped. Sometimes, when they switch over to another game, it uses in the proper 4x3 SD feed where the bottom line shows up properly.

Anyway, what I'm saying is you should be complaining to your local channel and not Directv.

Edit: I assumed you were talking about the feed provided by Directv since that's the forum this was posted in originally. Are you talking about the feed you receive from Directv (or another provider) or OTA? After posting this, I realized that the problem may indeed be your provider and not the local station. If your provider is centering the HD picture to prepare for the digital transition, then it would not be NBC's problem.

[russdog]

IF anyone else has noticed, SNL started broadcasting a cropped version of the HD show for display on SD.

The used to show the full HD source with pillerbars or the blackbars.
Maybe your local station goofed, but it was uncropped HD on my TV via D* transmission of my local station.

[Kevin1514]

My station has done this as well for the past 2 weeks.

[Davenlr]

What Directv did in our market, is converted all their analog receivers (4:3 NTSC) to digital receivers (ATSC). Local stations transmit both 16:9 and 4:3 material. So Directv has a choice when they send the signal out to SD viewers, Compress the widescreen to 4:3 (lots of skinny people), Letterbox the widescreen (black bars at top and bottom) or crop widescreen (what they are doing) in order to keep the 4:3 and 16:9 signals full screen.
The best option, if HD locals are available, is to get HD receivers and make the choice yourself with your receiver. I'm sure they are doing it this way so people don't call and complain about letterboxing.

[danjfoley]

well here is the odd thing. Just noticed that SNL does infact keep all the titles and graphics inside the 4x3 area. So that means that direct TV is cropping in TO MUCH!

[tonyd79]

They may be but the choice of widescreen versus centercut is made by the local station. DirecTV does what it is told. A centercut NBC affiliate is a problem for more than just SNL as NBC does a lot of widescreen programming for SD.