DTV on standard 4:3 TVs and CRT damage

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by dr.ido

Aspect ratio switching can be handled automatically using the flags that already exist in the the standards - as long as the broadcasters use those flags correctly.

Dr. Ido-

Like a number of other nice technologies used elsewhere in the world, aspect-ratio flagging has either never been used here in the USA, or no sets sold here have been designed to follow the flags, or both.

It does not help that sets such as Samsung LCDs can not even be made to remember the manually-chosen aspect-ratio settings on a per-channel (or specifically, per-subchannel) basis. One station here has a 480p or 480i subchannel (the equivalent of your 576p/i ones) showing 4:3 content but pillarboxed and coded as 16:9. My Samsung can remember aspect-ratio settings based only on the resolutions of various channels or subchannels. So, I either get that one subchannel double-pillarboxed (with everything on the screen super-thin) or, worse, I get all of the other 480p/i channels (which are all 4:3) stretched out wide and fat, filling the screen.