The Year of Living Digitally

2009 being the year of the digital transition, I think this might be a good time to pick a few bones with companies (mostly media firms) whose corporate culture has not kept up with the times.

HBO

HBO's issue with the 16x9 aspect ratio bothers me to no end. It's hard to imagine that America's premium cable network sends out a signal designed for people who bought their television sets before the turn of the millennium. What kind of preview monitors do these people use?

Anyone who tries to watch the HBO HD feed is in for a very amateurish viewing experience. Not only does HBO not know how to transition from programs or spots with a 4x3 aspect ratio, they seem unable to produce HD spots for HD shows.

As a result, instead of enticing me to watch whatever show they are trying to promote, I am infuriated by the ridiculous letter-boxed, pillar-boxed, jagged-edged, sub-par image displayed in the middle of a huge black background. Its a crying shame that HBO's promotional department seems unable to produce video whose quality is worse than what a teenage geek can produce in his/her parents' basement.

Maybe HBO should send their producers to intern at ESPN. They have done an excellent job with transitioning from the 4x3 to the 16x9 aspect ratio and output a consistent, high-quality HD signal.


History Channel, CNN, Fox News, and others

These other networks deserve calling out simply because they give HD and/or the 16x9 aspect ratio a bad name. The last time I checked, Fox News appears to have an issue with providing any HD or 16x9 aspect ratio programming.

CNN and the History Channel, on the other hand, think that it is okay to stretch their 4x3 images to fake 19x9 HD video. Let me begin by saying, there is nothing wrong with pillar-boxing provided it is done right. In fact, these services could use the extra screen real estate for crawlers and even ads. Whatever they do, they should stop presenting distorted video — this used to be a sign of a broken TV set.

All these cable outlets need to realize that a significant chunk of their audience is watching their signal on newly bought HD screens with a 16x9 aspect ratio and that nobody wants to watch a crappy signal after forking out large sums of money for the experience.

I doubt I am alone in my practice of reserving my 60-inch HD screen for only material that justifies the viewing experience. As a result, my viewership of these networks has decreased not in small part due to how jarring their images appear on a high quality screen.