Viewing Problems: Letter-box Format Viewing Option Not Available

[SnowLeopard_1]

I assume the networks made a decision to not allow viewers with square screen televisions the option to adjust our ratios so we can view TV programs in the wide screen formats in which they are meant to be viewed. This should be available.One wonders if this is some sort of industry-wide "conspiracy" to force people to have to buy new flat screen/wide screen TVs. However, in our current economic situation, very few people are in the position to just go out and buy new televisons.

The option allows one to manage the formatting of any widescreen content.

If you have a flat screen TV, you video aspect ratio is already 16:9. But if your TV has the more typical 4:3 aspect ratio (as do all old fashioned square screen TVs), you should be allowed to change your viewing area to widescreen content by choosing a 16:9 aspect ratio thorugh a Letter Box Mode.

Right now, if you have a square screen you are forced to watch a cropped version of the picture that fills up the entire square TV screen. The cropped picture is not something over which you can have any control: The sides of the picture are cut off and there's nothing you can currently do about it.For example, if you are watching a two-shot (perhaps a conversation between two people on screen at the same time) you are mostly going to see the space between the two people because the scene was shot for wide screen viewing. This is the same as choosing a DVD in Wide Screen version or one that has been "edited" for Full Screen (chopped off at the sides) to fill a square TV screen. If you are watching one that is Full Screen, you are not seeing the movie or TV program as the director intended it to be seen.

The following options should be made available by all TV cable or wireless providers so viewers can decide if they want part of their picture cropped off or not.

Letter Box Mode: If a Letter Box viewing option is made availabe the setting would force a 16:9 aspect ratio onto a standard 4:3 screen. This mode would shrink the widescreen picture to fill the width of the square screen and put black or gray bars at the top and bottom of the screen to create a true 16:9 aspect ratio. Directors and cinematographers spent decades learning how to make visually beautiful images--and all of them are composed for wide screen viewing. It isn't right that viewers are forced to watch cropped off images that someone else has decided you must watch. Many of us are film buffs, and it is really outrageous that we pay a large monthly fee for TV and then cannot even see the TV program as it was intended to be viewed.

Wide Screen: This setting is for flat screen TVs with wide screen (16:9 ratio) formats. If you already have a wide screen/flat screen TV, you already are allowed to view the entire content of a program.

Cropped: This is the setting for standard TVs with an aspect ratio of 4:3. Pictures are delivered in 16:9, but will be dropped to fit the 4:3 screen aspect ratio. If that's the way you want to view it, that's fine, but you are NOT seeing the entire image, and you may lose a lot of the visual content of the program.

If anyone has figured out how someone with a 4:3 screen can view content in a 16:9 ratio by the major networks, PLEASE let me know.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

Come on, you're worried what the directors think about how the image looks on a 4x3 analog TV.  Looks

lousy compared to HD no matter what you could do w/it as there aren't enough pixels to make any difference. 

By the way that letter-boxed image you see on the networks is the analog version of an HD program,

they don't pan and scan anything anymore to 4x3.

Chris

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Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

Message Edited by mibrnsurg on 07-04-2009 05:04 PM

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

If you are seeing this on the SD version of your local channels, then yes, that is what will happen.  The feed from the local channels to U-Verse is 16:9 HD, and then is cropped to 4:3 and downconverted to SD before being placed onto the U-Verse system.

If you subscribe to the HD package and tune to the HD version of the channel (even if your TV is not HD), the 16:9 feed is letterboxed on the NTSC outputs (composite and S-Video).

This decision was made at the U-Verse hand-off point to avoid having the feed "windowboxed" under certain conditions.  This would happen when the network has 4:3 material pillarboxed inside a 16:9 feed.  If that feed were then letterboxed, you end up with windowboxing (black bars all the way around), which is more objectionable than the cropped 16:9 feed.

If you want to view movies "as the director intended", I suggest Blu-Ray and an ISF-calibrated HDTV.  You will never get anything near what the director intended on a 4:3 standard definition TV, cropped or not.

[hpmsrm]

SomeJoe is right.....and I use the HD channels quite often on my 27" Sony SD set back in our computer room.  Not only is the letterbox cropping available on the 4X3 screen but the picture quality is better than when I watch the same program on one of the SD channels.  I'd suggest, if you can't see your way to purchase an HD TV with 16X9 capability, go ahead and pay the extra $10 per month for HD channels.  Then, as SomeJoe says, you'll be able to accomplish what you wanted.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Thank you very much for this information.  So, from your answer that the decision was made at the U-Verse hand-off point, am I correct to assume it is U-Verse that has made this decision to crop the 16:9 to 4:3 before placing the feed onto the U-Verse system?

We have never been able to get an explanation from anyone at U-Verse Tech Support about this. 

I do wish subscribers would be allowed some control over how we are willing to watch images on our conventional old TV sccreens rather then that being decided for us. When we had RoadRunner a few years ago, we did have the choice of letterbox or full screen. I do understand that SD would require some images to be shown pillarboxed. 

I watch The News Hour on PBS. It is a High Def broadcast. But when they are conducting interviews with newsmakers, they simply put a blue windowbox around the image. I have absolutely no problem with viewing those images. And I am grateful The News Hour has not decided for me to crop any images.

I can't tell you how many times we have missed visual jokes on shows like The Office because we can't see, for example, the expression on the actors' faces in a two-shot. What we see is the vending machine between the two, and maybe a foot or arm or half-a-nose of the actors. It is very frustrating.

Quite frankly, it does feel like something of an industry-wide extortion game being played on the public to force us into purchasing new TVs. The U-Verse technician who was at our house yesterday told us that the public is expected to keep up with new technologies, not the industry to accommodate old ones. But the fact is, in this collapsing economy, most of us do not have the financial freedom to choose to buy a new flat screen TV; most of us are scrambling just to keep a roof over our families' heads and food on our tables. It would be nice if our monthly service fees included some choice in how we view images on our screens.

Again, I do appreciate the infomation you sent.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Thank you for taking the time to repy to my query. I really appreciate members of this community board are so willing to share information.

However, I am a bit confused: Yesterday, we had a U-Verse Technician at our home. We asked if we could just subscribe to the HD package so we would not have this problem, but he told us that we would get some pictures but that other images would get scrambled.Was that incorrect?

[SnowLeopard_1]

I appreciate your taking time to reply to my query. I do think, however, from the contempt in the tone of your reply that you assume that everyone is in a financial position to purchase new HD Flat Screen TVs.

We have our financial hands full just keeping our family housed and fed; buying a new and expensive television is out of the question.

We had RoadRunner for a while a few years back. We had the same TV we have now. But we were afforded the choice by RoadRunner to receive images in Letterbox rather than an image cropped to 4:3. I wish we still had a choice about that. We miss a lot of imagery that is supposed to be included in a television show because we see, for example, the image between two actors instead of the two actors. I don't think it's too much to expect to be able to see the image as intended when we pay a hefty monthly service fee to U-Verse so we can watch television.

[jmeredith79]

This may be a solution to your problem. You can go into the settings menu from the U-Verse box and set the aspect ratio to widescreen format (not 720 or 1080). It does make the guide  a little bit of a nuisance but you would at least see most (if not all) of the image. Not the best solution, but good if you cannot afford or are unwilling to purchase a newer flatscreen. FWIW.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Thanks very much. After reading your suggestion, we did try this, but we get a pillarboxed image, not a widescreen one. If U-Verse can give us black pillars on the sides of the picture, I don't believe they can't give us black bars on the bottom and top instead so we can view a widescreen image. I'm pretty sure this is a decision U-Verse has made to try to coax (force) people to buy HD TVs. But with more and more of us being laid off by these very same businesses every day, I don't know how they think we could possibly afford such a luxury item.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

SnowLeopard,

It's simply not technically possible to do what you want on the U-Verse system.  Let's look at some examples and see why:

Currently, the feed from the local network is 1920x1080 HD, 16:9.

The way U-Verse currently treats it: Crop the feed to 1440x1080, 4:3.  Resize to 720x480, 4:3.  Use this as the SD feed.  Under this condition, you cannot have the U-Verse box attempt to letterbox this, because the content beyond the 4:3 picture boundaries is not there in the SD feed.  It was removed back at the Video Hub Office (VHO), where the feed was inserted into the U-Verse system.

Let's say you did it this way: Feed from local network is 1920x1080 HD, 16:9.  Resize that directly to 720x360, 16:9, then add letterbox black bars to pad it back to 720x480, 4:3.  Use this as the SD feed.  OK, now your box gets a letterboxed 16:9 feed with black bars.  OK, suppose you want to zoom on a 4:3 screen and only watch the center section.  When the U-Verse box zooms it in, it no longer has the full 480 vertical lines of resolution -- it only has 360 lines because that's all that's present in this version of the SD feed.  Now all the people who like it 4:3 cropped instead of letterboxed complain because they aren't getting the full resolution feed.

The only way you could do this so that it "kind of works" is to do what DVDs do: Feed from network is 1920x1080 HD, 16:9.  Resize this to 720x480 as 16:9 anamorphic, and use this as the SD feed.  Now the U-Verse box has to do one of two things on playback: 1) Expand the anamorphic 720x480 to 960x480 to remove the anamorphic aspect, then crop that to 720x480 to get the 4:3 center section.  This would give you a full screen image that's cropped.  Or 2) Resize the 720x480 anamorphic feed to 720x360 and add black bars to letterbox, giving a 16:9 letterboxed image.  This kind of works, but under condition 1) you again lose horizontal resolution, and instead of the 720 real pixels you actually only get 540, thus again disappointing people who want to watch a 4:3 cropped feed.

A last way to do it would be to not transmit an SD version of the feed at all, and just have the U-Verse box generate an SD output in whatever way you want it using the HD feed.  The problem with this is that people who don't have HD TVs or HD service would now be subject to 2HD stream limitations because the required feed from the VRAD is an HD-feed using 6 Mbps instead of an SD feed using 2 Mbps.

As you can see, there is no good solution to do what you want.  As such, your conclusion that there is an ulterior motive to force purchase of HD sets is a bit farfetched.

[Dennis_H]

I have to agree that the cropped mode stinks. Letter box it instead and people will learn to live with that. That's better than losing 1/3 of the picture. They did that in the OTA broadcasts of widescreen shows in SD. If it's widescreen, letterbox it, if not, leave it alone.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Thank you for the support regarding this issue, Dennis.

Because a non-cropped widescreen feed used to be available to cable customers long before HD televisions came on the market, I think many of us have problems understanding why this issue cannot be resolved. I also believe people would "learn to live with" black bars above and below the image. After all, they don't complain about letterbox images coming into their homes with cable station and PBS programming or with the commercials. I'm glad to know I am not the only one who is upset about paying so much for television service but not being able to receive a complete picture image.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Hi SomeJoe,

Thank you for your technically detailed explanation. I want you to know how much I truly appreciate the time you have taken to write all this.

I just wish I could understand:

1) why, when I had cable TV, I WAS able to format my square TV to receive letterbox instead of full screen

2) why I have no problems receiving network commercials, cable station and PBS programming in full letterbox format, and

3) if the above-mentioned stations can get full letterboxed images to me, I don't understand why the major networks cannot--and if they "cannot", why is it they are able to get their commercials to me in letterbox formatting, but not their programs.

I don't think I'm being far-fetched or paranoid to suspect that viewers are being nudged to buy HD TVs when even U-Verse technicians tell me "you are expected to keep up with the new technologies; businesses are not going to accommodate old ones". That might not be a plan that will work out well for businesses given our current economic realities.

For the time being, I guess I will just hope that enough people will be unhappy about paying for U-Verse and other TV services but still be unable to receive full images of their favorite program, and will complain about it. I do believe businesses prefer to have satisfied customers, but sometimes businesses need to know that customers are unhappy about what we rightly perceive as being charged for things we are not actually receiving.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

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SnowLeopard wrote:

Hi SomeJoe,

Thank you for your technically detailed explanation. I want you to know how much I truly appreciate the time you have taken to write all this.

I just wish I could understand:

1) why, when I had cable TV, I WAS able to format my square TV to receive letterbox instead of full screen

2) why I have no problems receiving network commercials, cable station and PBS programming in full letterbox format, and

3) if the above-mentioned stations can get full letterboxed images to me, I don't understand why the major networks cannot--and if they "cannot", why is it they are able to get their commercials to me in letterbox formatting, but not their programs.

---

You're welcome, glad my explanation gave you some help.

1) Cable has to send every feed to every house simultaneously.  Therefore, their boxes are able to perform the last solution I talked about -- they take the HD feed and present it the way the user selects (zoom/cropped, or letterboxed).  Because the stream limitations are not present, they can do this, but with U-Verse it's impractical as I described.

2) Network commercials can sometimes be letterboxed or otherwise look correct because of two reasons: a) Commercials are frequently inserted into the feed at the VHO instead of coming from the network.  These inserted commercials may be 4:3 SD already, in which case they're perfectly formatted for your TV.  Or b) The commercial itself is a 16:9 presentation that is already 4:3 letterboxed.  This also looks perfect on your 4:3 SD TV.  Sometimes network-level commercials are like this as well.  On a 16:9 TV, they're windowboxed.

PBS may be handing U-Verse an SD feed.  Not all PBS stations across the nation are broadcasting HD -- some are still using SD.  If your PBS affiliate is still SD, then the programs will be framed correctly anyway.

3) All major networks are doing everything in 16:9 HD.  As such, the feeds, resolutions, TV screens, and boxes are all being designed more and more around a 16:9 HD feed.  The networks who are filming and producing content in 16:9 HD were (in the last 3-5 years) being quite careful to shoot 16:9 but "protect" 4:3.  This means that they tried to keep all action and subjects within the center 4:3 of the HD 16:9 frame.  This was especially important during the days before the digital broadcasting transition - because the analog 4:3 SD feeds still existed.  Now that the transition is complete and the broadcasts are solely 16:9 HD, they are not worrying too much anymore about protecting the 4:3 center.  As such, you're out of luck on a 4:3 set unless you can letterbox the HD feed.

The only solution I see for you if you really want a letterboxed 16:9 feed would be to add the HD channels to your U-Verse package for $10/month.  Then, you could tune to an HD channel and get the letterboxed feed on the composite and S-video outputs.  What you might do here is call technical support, explain the issue that you have with the cropped 4:3 feeds, and request (nicely) that AT&T compensate you by giving you the HD channels for 6 months as a promo.  They might do that, and you would have at least 6 months free of letterboxed feeds.

[Dennis_H]

The problem with getting the HD package with SD TVs is the same issue as with HD TVs. The storage of the DVR is inadequate for HD and the stream limit. I regularly have 50 - 60 hours on the DVR before I go and make room. Granted, part of this could be resolved if they would put in a max number of episodes to keep feature so I didn't have 20 Sponge Bob's before the kids get some time to watch a couple. But 39 hours of programming storage is not enough for a household of 6 people. When I had DTV, my TIVO units had 200 hours each. I didn't worry about erasing quickly and could just record all the olympics for example and go through them at night. This would eat up all the Uverse DVR and not allow any more recordings.

If the stations are broadcasting all shows widescreen now, then they should be letterboxed on a 4:3. That is now the standard, not 4:3. We have standard def, we can live with the reduced vertical resolution and see the whole screen. It is the same fight I had with DVDs when they came out. Most DVDs are now widescreen and people have learned to like it or at least live with it. When I decide I can't live with a reduced vertical resolution, I'll go high def (actually, when son is out of college and DVR is bigger).

[Yankee_In_TX]

6.5 hours per person is not enough storage room?  Remember, commercial DVR's are intended to capture shows you can't watch and spit them back when you can watch.  They're not made to hold things longer term - such as your 10 favorite movies or whatever.

As for limiting a series, I believe that was addressed in another thread.

[Dennis_H]

There is enough storage for SD with our viewing habits, but not if I have to go to HD programming on my SD sets to see the entire picture. That is the issue in this thread. We may not watch TV for 3 days or so and sometimes there is a Spongebob marathon or something that we want to store for a little while and can't get to it.

I knew the limitations of the service with the max number of episodes and the storage when I got Uverse. I made the switch anyway and have worked around those problems. The issue here is why they are cropping the picture. If they want us to keep up with existing technology, that's fine. Give us the letterboxed picture and when we want to see full resolution and can afford it, we get an HDTV. For now we should at least see what is being broadcast and not chopped off. Seeing 2 noses talking to each other is not what I'm paying for. If I use a OTA set top converter, I get to see the letterboxed show. It should be the same for SD on Uverse.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Dennis is correct about this. If he is forced to go to HD programming for his SD TV, he cannot store the amount that U-Verse claims in its promotions to help sell their system to viewers.

U-verse has made a choice about how programming is going to be streamed into our homes. Not everyone is in a financial position at this point to purchase HD televisions.

U-verse is jeopardizing its continued expansion if it cannot or will not accommodate people with Standard Definition TVs. If people are so up on new technologies that they have already been able to purchase HDTVs, then they are likely already subscribers.But there will come a point of impasse for U-Verse as it tries to sell their service to the rest of the country: Most people still have--and will continue to have--SD TVs. As more and more people discover after they have subscribed that they cannot receive the letterboxed image, or that they must subscribe to the HDTV Package even if they have only SD TVs, they will feel ripped off as they discover that they will not be able to record more hours of programming. It's an unwise business decision given current economic realities in the U.S, as well as around the globe. U-Verse and the big networks are basically trashing their viewers. Are networks like Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, etc. assuming people are too stupid to notice that their images are cropped or that they don't deserve to have full images because they can't afford expensive new TVs, or that ALL of them want an image to fill their 4:3 screens? I think this thread gives lie to that assumption.  

PBS does broadcast most of its programming in HD, but those things it cannot, it shows windowboxed. This is just fine with me. I'd much rather see a smaller image with a subject being interviewed on The News Hour in windowbox rather than have every single program I watch on PBS cropped off at the sides.

The networks that have agreed, at the handoff point, to crop images received by 4:3 Standard Def are being inconsiderate to their loyal viewers. As a regular PBS viewer, I have been very grateful for that network's decision to treat its viewers with the respect their intelligence and viewing concerns demand. 

[SnowLeopard_1]

This is not true. U-Verse makes a very big deal about how many MORE HOURS of recording time over other tv/internet service providers it affords viewers. It's one of their biggest selling points. When we were approached by U-Verse, this was one of the main points stressed to us. The U-Verse representative bragged about how much programming one could store for later viewing for people like us who are not home every week. I like to keep news programming stored until I am home to view it. News programming is not always predictable in the length of time a news story takes to cover fully.

Look, U-Verse is a good service. BUT THEY CAN MAKE IT BETTER, so why wouldn't they want to cater to their subscribers' viewing needs????  PBS treats its viewers with this kind of respect, why can't all the networks and U-Verse? 

[SnowLeopard_1]

SomeJoe,

My point is that I am perfectly happy to receive a letterboxed image. I don't NEED the picture to fill the entire vertical area on my standard TV.

I feel strongly that this is a choice that viewers should be allowed to make. But if, as you said in an earlier post, that is asking the impossible, than I think everything should just be feed at 16:9 so it comes out letterboxed on SD 4:3 screens. For people who can't stand having black bars above and below their TV image, their only choice would be to buy a new HDTV. But as this thread implies, most people who have SDTVs who still go to the expense of subscribing to U-Verse are savvy viewers who would prefer to receive the letterboxed image. If PBS is willing to take that gamble with its U-Verse-and-Cable viewers, other networks should be willing to as well. I think this is could to turn into a PR brouhaha that is totally unnecessary.

[callmeox ACE - Wizard]

Since the technology won't allow you to pick the format (letterboxed or not), Uverse has gone with the status quo by staying with the cropped image for 4:3.

I also prefer letterboxed 16:9 over cropped 4:3. If I am watching one of our SD sets and there is a free HD stream, I will tune to the HD channel to see the entire picture.

I may be talking out of my butt here, but I really think that you (we) are in the minority with wanting the letterboxed 16:9. If they defaulted to letterboxing, they would be overwhelmed with people who don't like letterboxing since they "want to use their whole TV". I've heard from friends/relatives with SD sets that they dislike it. Even when I explain that they are missing a chunk of the action, they don't seem to care.

I think that the reduced size of the displayed image is what ultimately turns them off.

Best of luck in fighting the good fight.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Have always preferred Letterbox/WS in this house; would be no complaints for that as a default view on the SD TVs.

[Dennis_H]

I fought this fight on DVD and now on U-verse. I doubt if we win this one, but I'll try for a while. If not, it will be back to DirectTV when the Series 3 TIVO's come out. At least then I can add storage if I have to get the HD package. Here we are out of luck unless they activate the USB ports for external drives. Then I could at least rationalize staying with Uverse.

[SnowLeopard_1]

Hi Callmeox:

I disagree that most people prefer a cropped image on their 4:3 screens. I suspect most people who go to the trouble of getting Uverse installed and pay to subscribe to a more hi-tech service such as U-Verse are likely to want (and expect to receive) the entire image. Viewers who want to ability to be able to view their recorded shows on any TV, have more recording space available, and/or want a higher def picture tend to be more technically savvy viewers. And the more technically savvy a viewer, the more s/he is likely to prefer letterbox format over a full screen image that crops off a 1/3 of the picture.

[erazoner]

When DVD players first came out, millions of people welcomed the letterbox format, years before HDTV. It would seem to me to be preferred by most over cropped.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I prefer the letter box format over 4:3 because we see what gets cropped.  At first it took a little bit to get used to, but when I saw the advantages I gladly accepted it.  When I buy dvds I always look for the letter boxed versions.  My only question has been, how do they display on a 16:9 tv?  Is the letter box still there or no?  I am not being funny, because I have never seen a letter boxed movie on a 16:9 screen.

[callmeox ACE - Wizard]

Snow leopard...I agree that a tech savvy "early adopter" would be more on board with letterboxed on a 4:3, but for every techie who subscribes because they want the new cutting edge product, there are others who just want to get away from cable or satellite.

The fact that you're posting here says that you're an enthusiast and not an average joe consumer. It is my opinion that the average joe doesn't care at this point and they don't understand that they are missing part of the picture.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

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RCSMG wrote:
I prefer the letter box format over 4:3 because we see what gets cropped.  At first it took a little bit to get used to, but when I saw the advantages I gladly accepted it.  When I buy dvds I always look for the letter boxed versions.  My only question has been, how do they display on a 16:9 tv?  Is the letter box still there or no?  I am not being funny, because I have never seen a letter boxed movie on a 16:9 screen.

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There are two ways to do 16:9 movies on DVD.

1. Letterbox the movie on the DVD.  When this DVD plays back on a 4:3 screen, there are letterbox bars on the top and bottom.  When you play this DVD on a 16:9 TV, there are three ways it could display:

1A. If the TV adds pillarbox bars on the left and right for 4:3 content, then the 16:9 movie appears windowboxed in the middle of the screen, with black bars all the way around.  The movie will be in the correct aspect ratio, but due to the windowboxing, won't utilize the whole screen. 

1B. If the TV stretches a 4:3 image across the whole 16:9 screen, then the movie will appear with letterbox bars at the top and bottom, and will be in the incorrect aspect ratio (will be stretched horizontally).

1C. If the TV can zoom, then the 16:9 movie can fill the whole 16:9 screen.  But the resolution will not be the full resolution of the DVD.

2. The movie on the DVD is stored in anamorphic format.  In this format, the DVD player will output a different image depending on whether the DVD player is set to play back to a 4:3 TV or a 16:9 TV.

2A. If the DVD player is set to a 4:3 output, and you have a 4:3 TV, the output will be letterboxed just like situation 1.  If the DVD player is set to 4:3 output and you have a 16:9 TV, the output will be exactly the same as situations 1A, 1B, or 1C.

2B. If the DVD player is set to a 16:9 output and you have a 4:3 TV, the output will be out of aspect ratio (stretched vertically), but will fill the whole 4:3 screen.

2C. If the DVD player is set to a 16:9 output and you have a 16:9 TV, you need to set the TV to a full-screen or stretch mode to fill the screen.  Then, the entire movie will fill the entire screen at full resolution and in the correct aspect ratio.

Obviously, 2C is the ideal situation for a 16:9 TV.  If the DVD was manufacturered with the letterboxing already on the DVD, then 1C is the best option.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

Thanks Joe.

[gilclark1]

  Good morning,

  ''Letterbox format'' IS a problem. In this area (01602) Charter Cable network programing

  is passed along in the letterbox view. THERE IS A FIX !! but the cable company MUST cooperate.

  Note: While regular programing is ''letterbox'', LOCAL COMMERCIALS are inserted with

  the normal 4X3 format. If the local cable "office" will simply modify and INSERT the received network

  material into the 4X3, that would be acceptable. EXPAND THE VERTICAL and CLIP THE HORIZONTAL !!

  How many of the viewers would  miss the deleted (minor) portion of the picture? !