Mountain Lake PBS Productions

Colin Powers reflects on PBS programming for the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, & Quebec, public broadcasting, and the future of media distribution.

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Intentional “postage stamping”

May 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Digital Television, Documentary, Filmmaking, High Definition

Throughout the ongoing transition from analog to digital broadcasting, we’ve struggled with the multiple formats that our servers, sat receivers and master control equipment have to contend with.

One of the worst developments is to find 4:3  (original TV ratio) programs showing up “postage stamped” with black bars at the sides AND the top and bottom. Typically, viewers will only see this on a traditional 4:3 TV since widescreen sets usually clip the top & bottom bars off. So you end up seeing a 4:3 show on a 4:3 set, but its tiny with black surrounding it.

Subtitles? Forget about it.You can’t even read them.

Now I find it really amusing that the editors of this series are intentionally postage stamping certain shots for effect. It does seem to work… but strikes me as funny since I’ve worked so hard to prevent it at the station. Enjoy this little gem from the Interview Project

InterviewProject.com.

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