Posted by Barry Watzman on 01/17/07 05:54

I'm sure that the image is coming from a digital HDTV camera, but they
are not using the full width. And, by the way, although I'm pretty sure
it's NOT what they are actually doing, there ARE some 4:3 formats that
are approved HDTV formats. One of them is 1024x768, although I don't
think that any of the networks are actually broadcasting in that format
at this time. 640x480 progressive scan at 60Hz refresh is also an
approved format, it's not considered to be HDTV but it's more than twice
the information content of conventional NTSC analog TV.

There are also some approved formats that explicitly presume non-square
pixels, although I don't think that any of them are being used either at
this time.

Joshua Zyber wrote:
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
>
> There's really no debate to be had about this issue. If the nightly news
> were shot on High Def video, it would fill your 16:9 TV. All HD video
> cameras are natively 16:9 in aspect ratio. For example, The Today Show
> recently switched to HD production. Compare the same program on the SD
> channel and the HD channel. Then take another look at upconverted
> nightly news and see if you're really so impressed by the level of
> detail present.
>
>

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