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RonM6
join:2013-05-02
Madison, AL

RonM6

Member

Fox Sports 2 (Ch. 194) Cropped Incorrectly (4:3)

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Ever since Fox Sports 2 was added to our lineup earlier this year, it has been cropped with both left and right sides "chopped off" and only the center of the screen showing, in 4:3 resolution. I can tell this because most of the Fox Sports 2 logo in the upper right-hand corner is cut off. I tried contacting Technical support but their response was my TV must be set to the wrong resolution. However, this is not possible, since all of the other channels show correctly.

See photos below, the first of which shows the incorrect resolution of Fox Sports 2, the second shows Fox Sports 1 in HD, which has the correct resolution, and the third shows FXM, channel 171 (SD), as an example of what the resolution should be. Also, note that I did NOT change the resolution on my TV in between any of these pictures.

Again, the problem is only on Fox Sports 2. Can someone at WOW! please fix this?
RonM6

RonM6

Member

Sorry, the photos posted above, not below....
LordKronos
join:2002-01-02
Dearborn Heights, MI

LordKronos

Member

I'm not sure what market Madison, AL falls under, but taking a quick look at the channel lineups in a few Alabama markets, Fox Sports 2 appears to be an SD-only channel. There is no HD version available from WOW, thus it would be impossible to get an HD 16x9 feed.

The only thing they could possibly do is, if they generate the SD feed themselves from an HD source, they could letterbox it so you see the full width, but then you'd have your video window-boxed (ie: black bars on all 4 sides). You could set your TV to zoom it in, but you'd have to do that every time you change the channle, plus the resolution would be ever worse than SD (only about 360 lines of resolution).
devolved
join:2012-07-11
Rapid City, SD
Ooma Telo

devolved to RonM6

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to RonM6
Fox Sports 2 (only an standard def channel) here in Rapid City isn't chopped off like that, it's letterboxed with black bars along the top and bottom of the picture.

That is cropped wrong and it looks like the way the NBC station in Madison, WI is cropped on the SD signal on Charter Cable there, with half the NBC logo chopped off.
RonM6
join:2013-05-02
Madison, AL

RonM6 to LordKronos

Member

to LordKronos
Madison is in the Huntsville, AL market by the way.

I believe the correct resolution should be "window-boxed" as you described above. Virtually all of the other SD channels that WOW does not offer in HD are broadcast this way, with the lone exception being Fox Sports 2 as I described above.

WOW_Dan, is this something you could look into?
devolved
join:2012-07-11
Rapid City, SD
Ooma Telo

devolved to RonM6

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to RonM6
For FS2 and FXM to be shown correctly in SD, it needs to be letterboxed, that is, black bars along the top and bottom of the screen and the picture should go to the left and right hand side of the screen.

That's how 16:9 in 4:3 is supposed to look.

During Fox network programming and with their sports on the local Fox station's SD signal, that's how it looks, letterboxed. On the SD side during their local news, it fills the entire screen since their news is in 4:3. On their HD signal, it's also 4:3, but you see black bars along the right and left side of the screen and the picture is centered on the screen showing every element like their logos.

The local Fox SD signal looks like this during sports broadcasts from the network (16:9 on a 4:3 screen)...



During their local news, it looks like this on HD, which is what 4:3 looks like in 16:9....



The MeTV station here rebroadcasts the local ABC affiliate's 5:30pm news at 6:00pm every weeknight and it looks like this, since the ABC station is broadcasting entirely in 16:9...



The local MeTV is in 4:3 format.

If you are seeing a square post stamp picture in the center of the screen (like with your FXM example) with black all around it, that is incorrect also.
baess
join:2011-01-28

baess

Member

said by devolved:

For FS2 and FXM to be shown correctly in SD, it needs to be letterboxed, that is, black bars along the top and bottom of the screen and the picture should go to the left and right hand side of the screen.

That's how 16:9 in 4:3 is supposed to look.

The OPs pictures seems to show he has a widescreen TV, not an old style 4:3.

I believe the picture he shows is what they call "center cut" and would appear correct on an older style 4:3 TV.

In my market WOW recently changed many of the local SD stations from center cut to 16:9. So on older TVs they appear letterboxed where before they used to fill the screen. What is odd is that they didn't do it for all channels. They claim it is because their new equipment only allows them to transmit it one way and of course more people have widescreen TVs so that the format they chose. I had a thread about it a while ago.
RonM6
join:2013-05-02
Madison, AL

RonM6

Member

Found out last night there are a few other channels with the left and right cut off as well, including REELZ (Ch. 100). So apparently FS2 is not the only channel affected, but it is definitely the most noticeable.

Still awaiting a reply from someone at WOW....(WOW_Dan, are you out there)?

Just_Dan
Premium Member
join:2011-03-24
Denver, CO

Just_Dan

Premium Member

said by RonM6:

Still awaiting a reply from someone at WOW....(WOW_Dan, are you out there)?

I was in one of the video engineering manager's offices at the very moment you posted asking about this

I have entered a ticket for the local headend represetatives to verify this down in Huntsville. I'm waiting to hear back from them on what they find.
RonM6
join:2013-05-02
Madison, AL

RonM6

Member

Thank you very much. Please let us know what you find out.

Just_Dan
Premium Member
join:2011-03-24
Denver, CO

Just_Dan to RonM6

Premium Member

to RonM6
Can you check this again? I received word back from the local market that they had to contact someone in the master headend to make a change to the feed. They believe it should be good now.
RonM6
join:2013-05-02
Madison, AL

RonM6

Member

Yes, it is fixed now. Thanks!