Monday, February 16, 2009

More Stretch TV

The other day my wife sent me a link to a video of Campbell Brown ripping into Wells Fargo. What I instantly realized, aside from my disagreement with Ms. Brown, is that they stretched her. This is really weird stuff for an online video.

CNN has both HD and SD feeds, so one would think that they could take either the original recording or the SD feed to make the video for their site. Oddly, when I had cable throughout the election I would watch CNN in HD and I rarely, if ever, noticed any stretching. I would imagine that the network has their equipment in order to broadcast a proper 16:9 picture. Why did they choose to stretch this video then? Did they use the SD broadcast but stretch it for their wide screen player? We may never know.

Campbell, if you ever see this, ask them to stop! All the evidence you need is in this story: When I mentioned that the video was stretched my wife reacted that she noticed something was off. She wasn't sure if the video was out of proportion or if you had gained a lot of weight.

Finally, I'd like to note that my previous HD stretch piece is probably the most viewed one on this blog. It seems that it is high in the results on Google when you search for... "HD stretch," go figure. Well, if you've reached this site looking for advice I apologize. You may feel heartened that I feel the same way about picture stretching that you probably do. Until the time that I take a deeper look into how to fix the issue, may I suggest the following:
  1. Try a more specific search, such as "brand [and model] hd stretch."
  2. Check your user manual or check http://safemanuals.com/ if you lost your copy.
  3. Go to the AVS Forums and look around. If you need, ask about your problem there.
I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I hope you find a solution somewhere. If you do, post a comment telling others how. Maybe the next person to stumble by won't have to search as much.

2 comments:

Karenann said...

Your wife later found out Campbell is pregnant and therefore probably has gained a lot of weight.

Unknown said...

I still think that she's stretched and I doubt she appreciates any help the producers want to give in making her look bloated.