[BC] CNN fake widescreen

[Kevin Tekel]

I toured the CNN Building in Atlanta (world headquarters of Turner
Broadcasting) yesterday and I couldn't help but notice that *all* of the
flat-panel LCD monitors in the building were showing standard 4:3 video
stretched out to fill a widescreen aspect ratio!

They even have a big projection display on the wall showing many different
camera feeds as well as the current on-air video, and it, too, is showing
horizontally-stretched video.  The only displays I saw which were actually
showing the correct aspect ratio were the handful of CRT monitors still in
service, as well as the 9" color CRTs on all the desks in the newsroom
showing the current on-air video.

And what's worse, many of the LCDs were showing fuzzy video with obvious
interference patterns, as if they were picking up a Channel 3 signal from
an RF modulator, not from a direct video line!

So if CNN, TBS, or the Cartoon Network are producing any *true* widescreen
video, I didn't see it, even though at least 95% of the monitors in their
building are widescreen.  And apparently either nobody knows or cares
about how their displays are making their famous news anchors look short
and fat, or they can't be bothered to have a tech crew go around the
building and push a few buttons on each display to make it show the
correct aspect ratio.

The one good thing I'll say, though, is that the CNN building has a
*fantastic* food court, with dozens of vendors -- it's larger, better, and
cheaper than that of any mall I've been in.




 
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