Saturday, April 29, 2006
Ask HD Beat: Does 480p and 16:9 Really Match?
Posted by Jeremy Charette in "ARTICLE" @ 06:00 AM
"Reader Ralph writes in and asks: Does 480p and 16:9 Really Match? If a video game is 640x480 which is obviously not 16x9 how is the image 16x9? So is it some behind the scenes TV work that is going on to make the image widescreen? Or is the image stretched slightly?" Yet another great question by an HD Beat reader. This really drove me nuts until I researched it. You sort of already know the answer, the picture is displayed in the appropriate aspect ratio regardless of the actual resolution. The reason is that not all pixels are square..."
High-definition television is great, but unfortunately, it's a bit ahead of its' own time. Not all broadcasting equipment is capable of 720p or 1080i, and bandwidth restrictions prevents content providers from delivering uncompressed high-definition signals. So what happens? Distortion, compression artifacts, signal noise...you're not getting the full picture. Turns out Fox has been fooling people into think they're seeing an HD picture, when in fact it's just an SD signal shot in widescreen, compressed to 4:3, then stretched back to 16:9. DirecTV has even more tricks up their sleeve. A great article, and a must-read.
High-definition television is great, but unfortunately, it's a bit ahead of its' own time. Not all broadcasting equipment is capable of 720p or 1080i, and bandwidth restrictions prevents content providers from delivering uncompressed high-definition signals. So what happens? Distortion, compression artifacts, signal noise...you're not getting the full picture. Turns out Fox has been fooling people into think they're seeing an HD picture, when in fact it's just an SD signal shot in widescreen, compressed to 4:3, then stretched back to 16:9. DirecTV has even more tricks up their sleeve. A great article, and a must-read.
