Is there a hardware/software combination that can capture Anamorphic TV

[Phuzzy]

Escuse me if I am wrong but as I understand it...

All regular cable standard definition TV (received over a cable without a cable box) is transmitted as 720x480. The program can be the shape of the old 4:3 TVs or the shape of the newer 16:9 TVs, but even way the program is 720x480.

If you watch the TV show on a new widescreen TV and it is 4:3 then there will be black bars on the right and left sides - pillarboxed.

Now if I understand it right...

If you watch the TV show on a new widescreen TV and it fills the entire screen, it is still 720x480 but the pixels are anamorphic so that they are not actually square but are wider then tall. So a regular cable show - not high def - looks widescreen, but it is not widescreen? Is that right? If so, how does the TV know it display the program anamorphic ? Is it flagged or is there a signal the TV looks for?

I was looking at making a HTPC and was wondering what hardware/software combination can record shows and play them back in the same format, anamorphic or non-anamorphic, as they were originally boardcast.

I saw other posts about people complaining their recordings only filled the center of their widescreeen TV and I would like to avoid that.

[dphirschler]

Here is what happens... first of all, I assume you are talking about digital cable. My cable provider still broadcasts analog cable too.

On standard def channels...
- They are 720x480 (I think).
- All the shows are all 4x3. So on a properly setup TV, there are black columns on the sides.
- Some are widescreen, but they are letterboxed (so still 4x3), so on a properly setup 16x9 TV, there are black columns on the sides, and black bars top and bottom (which are in the program). You would need to use the "zoom" function on your TV so see it fill the whole screen properly.
- Some channels (such as PBS sub-channels and sometimes RetroTV), add in extra black columns. This annoys me because it takes away some horizontal detail and forces me to set my TV (improperly) to stretch.

I usually record those channels using my DVD recorder. The black columns are not recorded because the TV generates those, unless it is one of those broadcasts where they added them in.

HD channels... is an entirely different animal. But I record those on my DVD recorder as well. But depending on the broadcast, it may be anamorphic widescreen or improperly stretched 4x3 TV (Cartoon Network does this for many shows).

Hope that makes sense.

Darryl

[jmac698]

I agree, interesting that you can get anamorphic HD channels, is that from the display option you set on your cable/satellite box? Mine is DCX3400 and setting it to "widescreen" only works at 480P and above, so basically I don't get to record anamorphic in SD. It does look quite a bit better though.
Analog has no real resolution, it can have something called tv lines which is how many pairs of black/white lines can fit per picture height... that is relative to a square size, IIRC.
But anyhow, the analog cable signal probably was converted from a digital satellite transmission, and SD channels might even by 544x480 originally. I even get a speed sd channel which is originally 320x480 and wins the award for the most horrible looking channel Really, internet videos look better.

[manono]

Yeah, much of what Phuzzy said was wrong. Standard-def can be broadcast in resolutions other than 720x480. 4:3 channels can be viewed on a 16:9 TV set with bars on the sides or (if widescreen 4:3) with bars on both the sides and above and below.

Hi-Def isn't broadcast as anamorphic 16:9 720x480 but as either 720p or 1080i. It's 1:1 (square pixel) and doesn't require stretching or resizing.

I saw other posts about people complaining their recordings only filled the center of their widescreeen TV and I would like to avoid that.

Then apparently they were viewing widescreen 4:3 content on a widescreen TV set (or were set up wrong, or weren't being allowed to cap real Hi-Def sources). If the source is 4:3, then there's no way you can avoid that. Except by using the zoom on the remote control which isn't a 'fix' at all, in my opinion, because it'll still look like crap.

[dphirschler]

Bars on top/bottom with columns on left/right... I call that "windowboxing". Not sure if that is the proper term, though. But it's the result of a letterbox broadcast shown on a widescreen TV. The TV adds the columns, the bars were in the broadcast. I've never seen an actual "anamorphic" broadcast. However, when viewing the widescreen HD material on my DVD recorder (standard def), it will appear anamorphic. I stretch the display and it looks great. If I record it on my DVD recorder, it's anamorphic widescreen, not letterboxed.


Darryl

[jmac698]

I've seen some music videos incorrectly played back; they were 2.35:1 but stretched to 16:9 in letterbox, so in effect I got a slight anamorphic effect. Some TV's have border detection and automatically resize, I find the constant zooming (with commericals) distracting though.
Finally there was an anamorphic widescreen system used in some countries (namely Germany) called PalPlus; it looked letterbox unless you had the special decoder which then used some hidden video which made it anamorphic. The video is stored in the color information in the borders; it showed as a slight bluish image hidden by the black luma.

[usually_quiet]

Most widescreen 480i material is letterboxed to 4:3 in N. America. Anamorphic widescreen 16:9 in 480i is rare. I just saw it for the first time a few days ago, and I couldn't beieve my eyes. The local ION TV affiliate is broadcasting some shows using anamorphic 16:9 480i over-the-air on their primary sub-channel. The analog cable version of the channel is not anamorphic. The clear QAM cable version is anamorphic 16:9 480i.

[Brad]

ThisTV in Seattle is anamorphic 16:9 480i on ClearQAM (and I guess OTA). Even when they play 4:3 content. In other words they squish the video down to 528x480 with the other 192 pixels of width dedicated to pillarboxing.

Idiotic? Yes, quite...

[jmac698]

As for the quality of anamorphic, I recording it to a VHS before, looked much better. I even did an experiment where I recording component video in separate frames to VHS, even HD as 1/4 of the picture at the time, and reconstructed it after. Looks much better, kind of the betacam SP look but even better. Don't mean to be so OT so ask if you are curious.

[edDV]

It is quite common outside N America for satellite channels and some DVB broadcasts to be transmitted 1440x1080 or 960x720 anamorphic and then stretched out in the set top box or DVB tuner to 1920x1080 or 1280x720. That is not allowed under ATSC for the primary channel.

Most cable "digital" SD channels in N America are 528x480 4:3 with MPeg2 flags.
ATSC SD channels are sent 704x480 usually 4:3 but 16:9 is allowed.

There is discussion going on that ATSC 2.0 HD h.264 channels may support anamorphic. These would only apply to secondary channels and would require a new ATSC 2.0 tuner.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/340097-Discuss-advanced-ATSC-broadcasting