HDTV Forum

This weekend, the TV show on NBC "Saturday Night Live" was the first of its episodes to be originally shot and broadcast in High-Def and recorded in Dolby Digital.

I get HD service through Comcast and have a Pioneer Elite PRO720HD. It only has analog input. The Comcast cable box does have DVI output available though I've never used it. I've read in some magazines that there was a possibility that viewing High Def with analog gear like mine would be in a downgraded resolution to protect copyright I guess.

My question is why did the High Def broadcast of Saturday Night Live appear zoomed in? It appeared that about 20% of the outside picture was cropped off. Did anyone else notice this? Or was it just me? I've noticed this on some broadcasts, but not all. I wonder if this was Comcast's decision to rebroadcast it this way, or if Comcast has recently changed High Def reception through analog cables to be zoomed in. Or if perhaps my RPTV may have some other issue like the Overscan issue I thought I had fixed already. I unfortunately didn't have an over-the-air High Def receiver for a direct comparison.

Note the regular analog NBC was in a simulated widescreen (black bars in top and bottom) and looked really very good compared to last season. The audio also seemed more clear and improved although on the analog station wasn't in Dolby Digital.

Sincerely,
Douglas

Hopefully they are doing what they did with Conan...

Note the regular analog NBC was in a simulated widescreen (black bars in top and bottom)

..sure sounds like it.

Hopefully I will get some time to watch this tonight!

Something was very strange and indeed you are on the mark. The dead give away was the fact that the NBC logo was cutoff. This does not appear to have been HD; only a zoom in on the letterboxed 4:3 presentation used for the analog.

On top of that the directing left us many times with material that was clearly cutoff such as the top of people heads or the beginning skit White House logo. There was also obvious native 4:3 content presented full screen cutting off the top and bottom of the image rather than being letterboxed in the 16:9 source.

I sure hope they do better next week...

Richard,
You didn't say but were you watching on cable, Sat. or an OTA receiver?

But thanks for the reply. It's nice to now I'm not the only one suffering and that there might be something wrong with my setup AND that I don't necessarily need to call and complain to my cable operator.

But whom would I complain to? I mean if Saturday Night Live would trail their opening bit (lead their opening monologue) with "This is the first recorded in HD..." then who is making the decision to crop and zoom the otherwise lovely picture? I just don't understand their decision.

So while on this topic, moved viewtopic.php?p=19537

By the way, watching Monday night football on ABC looked really great. I'm not a big football fan, but my wife and I did marvel at how great it looked. I think the ABC 720P gets a little converted on my 1080i set but there was nothing cropped per se and it looked sensational. We'd just finished watching "Friday Night Lights" on HBO HD for the first time so was 'into' football for the moment. It was an experience for sure even if we're not fans.

PS - Just as Saturday Night Live came on did anyone hear a very loud shrill scream come out of the rear right (facing the TV) speaker? My wife and I both jumped thinking one of our neighbors was playing a trick on us... but both agreed it must have come from the speaker.

Watching via OTA.

that there might be something wrong with my setup

Nope.

need to call and complain to my cable operator.

Nope.

But whom would I complain to?

NBC of course.

Just as Saturday Night Live came on did anyone hear a very loud shrill scream come out of the rear right

Hmm... Don