F1 Coverage Irony?
Discussion
Irony - Is that similar to bronzy and goldy?
Don’t know if this is the correct answer but would suspect it is down to the fact that each race is filmed by the host broadcaster and than transmitted to the 100+ countries who take the feed.
Not all of these countries have widescreen and therefore it would mess up their coverage.
Having said that I would have though that it was possible to film in 16:9 but make sure your shots were 4:3 safe.
POD, any ideas?
>> Edited by Rude-boy on Wednesday 20th July 13:33
mr_yogi said:
For a sport so obsessed with latest in technology how come the coverage on ITV is not in Widescreen?
Does anyone know when this might change?
Doesn't worry me at all but I think I read that Bernie's lot offer wide screen and multi camera through pay per view channels.
Is that right?
Widescreen coverage isn't that popular throughout the world. The UK was one of the first to take it up, about 6 or 7 years ago if I remember correctly.
To be able to put together a 16x9 feed coming out of China (or even the US!) or other places would be a major headache. But most nations can handle the 4x3 feed this is what gets sent out.
It's not unusual for major sporting events to be 4x3 Euro 2004 wasn't widescreen either. Pretty much all major sporting events in the UK are now 16x9. Something like Silverstone and the other major European GP's might be recorded in 16x9 for the archives, then ARC'd (Aspect Ration Converstion) to 4x3 for broadcast and as ITV have to take a 4x3 world feed I think they also do the studio stuff in 4x3 to match the race feed. Could be wrong on that though as I don't watch the GP too much.
Hope this helps!!
To be able to put together a 16x9 feed coming out of China (or even the US!) or other places would be a major headache. But most nations can handle the 4x3 feed this is what gets sent out.
It's not unusual for major sporting events to be 4x3 Euro 2004 wasn't widescreen either. Pretty much all major sporting events in the UK are now 16x9. Something like Silverstone and the other major European GP's might be recorded in 16x9 for the archives, then ARC'd (Aspect Ration Converstion) to 4x3 for broadcast and as ITV have to take a 4x3 world feed I think they also do the studio stuff in 4x3 to match the race feed. Could be wrong on that though as I don't watch the GP too much.
Hope this helps!!
Yeah you'd get bored without the adverts 
With the majority of the races are in Europe, surley they could just film in WS and then pan n scan/ crop the image down to 4:3 for the other countries? Almost all the Champions League matches are WS (only the odd match on ITV2 was squash'o'vision) and I'm sure Euro 2004 was mostly WS, I'm sure the BBC matches were.
It just seems so wrong when you have Bargin Hunt, Corronation Street and programs from the US in WS that the most technologically advanced sport can't manage to get out some decent pictures
But I guess that this is a small issue compared with most of the criticisms already raised in this thread
mr_yogi said:
With the majority of the races are in Europe, surley they could just film in WS and then pan n scan/ crop the image down to 4:3 for the other countries? Almost all the Champions League matches are WS (only the odd match on ITV2 was squash'o'vision) and I'm sure Euro 2004 was mostly WS, I'm sure the BBC matches were.
It just seems so wrong when you have Bargin Hunt, Corronation Street and programs from the US in WS that the most technologically advanced sport can't manage to get out some decent pictures
But I guess that this is a small issue compared with most of the criticisms already raised in this thread
Shows like Bargin Hunt and Corry (huge budget) are more simple and smaller affairs, they don't have to worry about live feeds and can easily edit a 4x3 for other nations in post, which is much cheaper then doing it live.
The Champions League is a slightly different affair, each country has a set of host broadcasters, over here we have Sky and ITV who broadcast matches in 16x9. It's up to the host broadcaster of that country which format it goes out in. For example if you watch a match from Denmark on ITV, then it'll be in 4x3 as that is what the host broadcaster is sending out. So there are no 16x9 pictures, so ITV who are taking the feed of the match from Denmark are forced to take the match 4x3, they have no say over it.
The BBC's coverage of Euro 2004 was a little different. All of the studio stuff was shot 16x9 and they had 4 match cameras at every ground which were being recorded 16x9. However, the host broadcaster (which the BBC weren't at Euro 2004) were only covering matches in 4x3...
As for the F1 issue, I'm guessing the reason they don't provide 2 feeds could be one of cost or limiting the markets to which they go. To have 2 feeds from a venue 1 16x9 and 1 4x3 would be very expensive in terms of sat time. And if the broadcaster who picks up the feed can't ARC the siganl then it's better to send out what is the lowest comman denominator, which in this csae is 4x3. Plus there are very few mini cams that actually work in 16x9, which is why Big Brother is only 4x3, or certainly was for the first few seasons. They might have another reason, but I've never worked in F1, so I'm not 100% sure.
pdV6 said:
Having said that I would have though that it was possible to film in 16:9 but make sure your shots were 4:3 safe.
Would have thought that 16:9 shots "safe" for 4:3 would of necessity not have anything worth looking at in the "extra" screen space, so a bit pointless.
90% of stuff for broadcast on TV that is shot 16:9 but everything is kept in the 4x3 'safe area' a process known as 'shoot to protect'... Which takes on a whole new meaning sitting here watching Team America!!
mr_yogi said:
With the majority of the races are in Europe, surley they could just film in WS and then pan n scan/ crop the image down to 4:3 for the other countries?
Shooting a 16:9 image requires a different set up / CCD plate than that for a 4:3 image. Pan & scan (even active) is a load of old tosh and 4:3 safe is much less troublesome/sickening.
Most countries other than UK still use 4:3 as standard format - especially for international sporting events. Next season look at the Six nations from anywhere outside UK and its all 4:3.
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff