P392 4-Tel 392 Wed 12 Jan C4 22:45:18 Movies and certain other programmer are often made in a widescreen format such as "Cinemascope". Unfortunately, there are many different widescreen formats, all with slightly differing width and height dimensions, and this creates a problem for broadcasters and viewers. Conventional TV sets have screens of an almost square shape (4:3), which makes it difficult to transmit a widescreen movie without either losing some of the action or by using the deep "letterbox" technique that produces black bands at at the top and bottom of the screen. Continued... 1/3 Films C4 today Engineering 4-Tel indexP392 4-Tel 392 Wed 12 Jan C4 22:44:12 Many viewers using conventional TV sets dislike the black bands, and this has limited the number of programmer we could transmit in widescreen. For viewers equipped with one of the new widescreen television sets, the problem is considerably reduced but not eliminated, since the widescreen tube shape is 16:9 - and not all widescreen movies are precisely 16:9. Continued... Widescreen programme listings on 310 4-Tel main index is on page 300 2/3 Films C4 today Engineering 4-Tel indexP392 4-Tel 392 Wed 12 Jan C4 22:48:23 One of the many attractions of the digital transmission of television programmer is that set-top boxes give the viewer the choice of full screen or letterbox display. Channel 4 is able to transmit a higher proportion of its programmer in widescreen format on its digital sjrvjces, thus enabling viewers with digital receivers to enjoy programmer as the maker intended. Widescreen programme listings on 310 4-Tel main index is on page 300 3/3 Films C4 today Engineering 4-Tel index