Gold - aspect ratio switching broken!

[Midzone]

I’ve noticed recently that the aspect ratio switching on Gold has stopped working. 

It used to switch to 4:3 for the older programmes like Dads Army and then switch back to 16:9 during the adverts and newer programmes.

Now its constantly stuck in 16:9 and any older programmes are being stretched to fill the screen.

Can BT TV look into this?

[Midzone]

I’ve noticed recently that the aspect ratio switching on Gold has stopped working. 

It used to switch to 4:3 for the older programmes like Dads Army and then switch back to 16:9 during the adverts and newer programmes.

Now its constantly stuck in 16:9 and any older programmes are being stretched to fill the screen.

Can BT TV look into this?

[shaude]

Thank heaven I'm not alone in this. I have had several contacts with UKTV over many months with the stretching problem (only on Gold ch: 310) unresolved. Today I put the problem to BT Customer Care. See below my emails to both BT and UKTV. Cannot the techies get their heads together? Surely just a matter of pushing a button or using some software to transmit in the correct format automatically. ALL the other channels don't seem to have problem doing this. I'm sick of seeing Pike in Dad's Army appear as a 30 stone obesity!

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Dear BT Customer Care,

I have been corresponding for many months with UK TV over this problem. Below you will find my latest email to UK TV. It explains clearly the problem I continue to have with just one channel, namely GOLD. Can you at BT resolve this problem with GOLD on channel 310? It must surely be affecting all your customers...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear UKTV Team,

We have exchanged emails on a few occasions over several months, but nothing has been resolved concerning this problem when viewing GOLD. I am now at the end of my tether...

PROBLEM:  All 4:3 formats are being transmitted on GOLD in stretched mode.

Distorted fat actors etc.

MY PLATFORM: Subscribed to BT Youview with supplied box. GOLD is on channel 310

My location is London W7

I am really unhappy that a channel for which I pay a subscription seems unable to transmit in the correct format. GOLD used to be my favourite channel, but I am now seriously considering cancelling my subscription. Surely in this day and age you can push some button or have software to automatically transmit in the correct format without this awful stretching. GOLD is the ONLY channel that gives me this problem.

[Midzone]

Good luck with that - keep us posted on developments. The situation is a pain - does no one monitor output?

[Steve_M]

I've asked the BT team to get together this today and prove where in the transmission path it is being stretched.

Steve

[shaude]

Hi Steve_M

Thanks for helping with this infuriating problem. Do let us know if it gets solved. As a result of my post in this forum I did get a phone call from BT yesterday. Unfortunately I'm a bit hard of hearing and the chap had a strong foreign accent (not his fault), but I didn't really grasp what he was saying. Gold is such a popular channel where most old programmes are 4:3 aspect so it must be put right for thousands of us BT customers. This stretching has been going on for many months. It didn't used to do this.

Thanks Again

(another) Steve.

[PaulSk]

I'm sorry it has taken a while for us to respond but we have a team looking at this now and hope to fix it soon. 

Meanwhile, you don't need to suffer watching stretched images as most TVs have a simple control to manually adjust the aspect ratio.

Look on the television's remote control for a button labelled "Zoom", "Wide", "Aspect" or a rectangle with arrows showing the picture being stretched, as shown above. (Note it is on the television's remote control - NOT the BT YouView remote control). Press the button repeatedly until the image looks correct without being stretched.

On some TV's such as LG you may need to press the Settings button (that looks like a gear), navigate to the Aspect Ratio menu and choose 4:3. 

I appreciate this is not ideal as you will need to do this every time you watch a 4:3 programme on the Gold channel but it may save some frustration if you didn't know about this feature. 

When it is fixed properly the image should automatically adjust as it does on other channels. 

P.S. The numbers indicate the aspect ratio or the ratio of width to height. 4:3 is the old squarer TV format that was used until the 1990's when the 16:9 widescreen format became popular. 

[shaude]

 Many thanks for your efforts Paul. I have of course been been changing the aspect ratio manually when required for many months now. My Panasonic requires me to scroll  through 'Cinema - Full -  Auto - 16:9 - Subtitle - 14:9 - 14:9 Zoom - 4:3 (finally). So it's a bit of a pain and I'll be glad as will many others when it is fixed.

Steve.

[PaulSk]

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@shaudewrote:

 My Panasonic requires me to scroll  through 'Cinema - Full -  Auto - 16:9 - Subtitle - 14:9 - 14:9 Zoom - 4:3 (finally).

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Yes, it can be a bit fiddly on some TVs. I'm not sure which model you have but, if you're lucky, you may find you can step backwards through the menu to get their more quickly.

For example, when the menu is displayed with Cinema at the top and 4:3 at the bottom, instead of pressing Down seven times you may find Up once has the same effect.

It's worth a try but I can't promise it will work on your TV...

[Midzone]

Any ideas how long til a fix is sorted? Has the problem been identified?

Steve

[PaulSk]

Sorry, I'm not sure at this stage. Another team is dealing with it and it may require changes by other parties outside of BT.

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