Turner Classic Movie (TCM) Picture Size Cropped

[gerryfx]

Hi Tony, here's some stills from a movie that ran today, called The Nanny from 1965, widescreen aspect ratio 1.85:1

but presented on TCM HD as 4 x 3or 1.33:1. Opening credits are cut off on the sides by the pillarbox

[gerryfx]

Here's a sample of the windowbox I was talking about before. This movie ran today and it's called, Toys in the Attic. 

This movie's aspect is 2.35:1 which is much wider than the HD format. That explains why the bars top and bottom. So its looks to me that the letterbox is correct for this movie but the pillars are not. It seems the TCM HD broadcast is being covered with a pillarbox over everything, which isn't necessary. Hopefully I can grab a still from one of the promo breaks, so you can see the cut off on the HD graphics. 

[north1457]

Hi Tony

Here are 2 pics of HD Video from TCM taken from my Arris HDPVR830, they were shot by TCM, both in HD.

Pic 1 is pre April, sharp image and no cropping. When there was text it was not cut off. (Can see if I have a clip with text if you want)

Pic 2 is post April, not as sharp, not filling entire screen, text is cut off.

As there are many formats for movies, these videos are shot in HD or 4K and are setup to fill a 16:9 screen.

This problem is on both TV's, no other channels from my lineup have this issue.

[catcol]

Thanks to gerryfx and north1457 for their postings clearly illustrating the problem. I visited a Telus store where I could view their TCM feed. It was fine with NO cropping. The fact that many Shaw subscribers with different boxes and TVs are experiencing the same problem and that the Telus TCM picture is fine indicates this is clearly a problem with the Shaw feed. This is where the problem lies. Shaw, please fix this.

[gerryfx]

Here's the same problem on a Rogers forum in Atlantic Canada that happened in 2014/ 2015. The problem was finally resolved by Rogers but it took almost a year for them to do it. Unfortunately the fix wasn't posted in the forum. 

Solved: TCM HD aspect ratio problem - Rogers Community 

Maybe Shaw engineers can talk to Rogers engineers and figure this out!

[lockebryant]

I have a Motorola DCX3510-M and the TCM SD channel (46) is having the same problem for me. Here's what "To Kill A Mockingbird" looked like last week:

Had to order this from Shaw on Demand and got a perfect version of the film, which was a waste of money, but at least got to see a great movie.

I talked to Shaw customer service Friday and they rebooted my PVR to default settings to try to fix it but then Saturday this is how "Inherit the Wind" looked:

Here is how "Inherit the Wind" looked when I recorded it on March 29 of this year:

Shaw is sending out a tech to check out the situation this week, but I'm sure the problem isn't exclusive to my PVR or its connection. There's something else going on. As others have said, TCM does not crop any of its movies, as a matter of principle. They even have film specific aspect ratio explanations on their website:

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16639/Inherit-the-Wind/theatrical-aspect-ratio.html

Please look into this. I'd rather not pay for a channel when almost all of its post-1950 movies are now unwatchable.

[shaw-tony]

gerryfx, lockebryant, north1457, catcol thank you for the examples. I will submit this along with my examples to our video engineering lead.

[roguesquirrel]

Following. I also have noticed this problem since I started watching TCM last week.  TCM (Channel 46) is cropped on the sides both during the movies and during the segments by the hosts.

[gerryfx]

Hi Tony, Just wondering if you were able to find anything out about the TCM HD problem?

gerryF

[roguesquirrel]

Some further information, my problem is with TCM SD but it seems to be the same situation.