P392 4-Tel 392 Thu 11 May C4 01:00:52 Movies and certain othjt programmjs are often made in a widjsctein format such as "Cinemascope". Unfortunately, there are many different widjscreen formats, all with slightly differing width and height dimensions, and this creates a problem for broadcasters and vjewets. Conventional TV sets have screens of an almost sruari shape (4:3), which makes it difficult to transmit a widescreen movie without eithjt losing some of the action or bz 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 Thu 11 May C4 01:59:17 Many viewers using conventional TV sets dislike the black bands, and this has limited the numbjt of programmjs we could transmit in widjscreen. For viewers equipped with one of the new widjscreen television sets, the problem is considerably reduced but not eliminated, since the widjscreen tube shape is 16:9 - and not all widjscreen movies are precisely 16:9. Continued... PDC is explained on pages 393/394 4-Tel main index is on page 300 2/3 Films C4 today Engineering 4-Tel indexP392 4-Tel 392 Thu 11 May C4 01:01:22 One of the many attractions of the digital transmission of television programmjs 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 programmjs in widjscreen format on its digital sjrvjces, thus enabling viewers with digital receivers to enjoy programmjs as the makjt intended. PDC is explained on pages 393/394 4-Tel main index is on page 300 3/3 Films C4 today Engineering 4-Tel index