I don’t mind them cutting off the top of some shows if it works. It seems to for sienfeld and the picture quality is superb compared to what we’ve been used to for the show.

Biggest tragedy is Babylon 5. The show was made in widescreen. The special effects were not. They were rendered in 4:3 ntsc resolution. They had some idea that when the time came that people wanted the wide-screen versions, they could re-render it all but they then lost all the data so that’s impossible to do.
So for the widescreen versions, the purely live action footage is nice and high quality, but when you come to any shot that is CG or a composite.. which happens a lot, the quality drops to an enlarged low resolution, cropped version. Because this was ntsc its particularly bad for the end converted to PAL.

“@Craig, once again it was recorded to film which itself is already much wider than 4:3.”
Well that makes sense for Seinfeld, add a bit to the side, cut a bit and bingo 16×9 in HD, Now will they ever be put on DVD? Probably the day after I buy the current DVD box set

“Anyway, getting back on topic, if they had a 16:9 frame to work with they would have used it on the DVD too.”
Not necessarily, look at the first season of House and The OC on DVD its 4×3 but aired in HD 16×9 and my pet peeve is Gilmore Girls seasons 4 to 7 aired in HD 16×9 but are degraded on DVD in 4×3. I’m sure there are many others.

Maybe we need another poll “what are your TV pet peeves?”

Mike Beckham: MediaSpy’s info is wrong, for one thing it was shot on 35mm Panavision, not 16mm. Secondly, it’s definitely cut off top/bottom, although there is some extra info on the sides it’s not enough to fill the 16:9 frame. There is both less and more (similar to a Super 35 frame, only with less to work with)

HD masters were made for every episode a few years back (which meant going back to the original film elements and re-editing every episode) for the DVD releases. This re-editing also caused a few hiccups — one episode they forgot to replace the bluescreen during a driving scene with the composited footage This is also why the DVD (and Ch. 9) versions are sped up and higher pitched than the original NTSC->PAL conversions that Ch. 10 aired.

Anyway, getting back on topic, if they had a 16:9 frame to work with they would have used it on the DVD too.

From the point of view, why would you launch a new channel that wasn’t 16:9when bunch of the shows on it are made wide screen, then to the fact it’s a channel who’s audience would be more likely than others to care about the aspect ratio.

It’s about time. The picture quality has always been quite poor on sci-fi to begin with, so hopefully that clears that up.

Not sure if DVD differs.

ATNI at MediaSpy gave a good explanation:
“The widescreen episodes are not resized. Each and every episode of Seinfeld was filmed on 16mm widescreen film, hence why they have been able to produce HD widescreen versions of each episode. If anything, you could say there is more picture information than before, not a loss.”

Many of these programes are produced in High Definition, and the Sci-Fi audience is most likely to have HD Foxtel and HD displays.

As for Seinfeld I don’t know how they did it without stretching the image but on ch9 it look good in 16×9 with no heads cut off or anything, why can’t it be sold on DVD in 16×9?

Anyone getting anew TV wants there shows to fill the screen so the sooner more channels go 16×9 the better!

Also many shows were shot, edited and made in HD – even if the parent US network was not airing a HD signal at the time. They did this with an eye to the future, knowing eventually the industry would go HD.

Most FX shows like Damages, Nip/Tuck and The Riches are made in HD, even though FX itself does not broadcast a HD channel yet (although they plan on it in the future) Likewise for Sci Fi shows like Eureka, have been made in 16:9 HD for a long time, even though Sci Fi USA just launched an HD channel.

Before this it is very likely that places like Australia saw shows like Nip/Tuck and Damages in 16:9 HD, even though the US auds did not!