Stretched picture on UKTV Drama

[NamronUK]

When watching UKTV Drama on Sky Stream, the picture for old programmes recorded in 4:3 ratio are stretched to fill the 16:9 screen.

I've checked Drama on Freeview, and 4:3 programmes appear correctly on that platform with balck bars at the sides of the picture.

Other channels on Sky Stream such as Gold show 4:3 programmes correctly with black bars at the sides of the picture, so I believe the settings of my Sky Stream puck and TV are correct.

It appears to be a problem specifically with Drama on Sky Stream.

Does anyone else have this problem or know of a solution?

[Fothergill1]

@NamronUK What is your aspect ratio set to in your settings.  Mine is set to Auto and have never noticed any problem.

Check yours at Settings > Picture & Sound > Picture > Aspect ratio.

[NamronUK]

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@Fothergill1 wrote:

@NamronUK What is your aspect ratio set to in your settings.  Mine is set to Auto and have never noticed any problem.

Check yours at Settings > Picture & Sound > Picture > Aspect ratio.

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In "Settings > Picture & Sound > Picture" there are only three options, none of which are Aspect ratio:

> Picture resolution

> Default streaming format

> Judder reduction for TV apps

As I said in my original post, other channels such as Gold switch correctly when showing 4:3 content. The stretching problem only exists on Drama.

To clarify, I'm using a Sky Stream puck - not a Sky Glass TV.

[Fothergill1]

@NamronUK apologies, I have just realised with a Stream puck you will not have the same settings as my Sky Glass.

Your aspect ratio will be on your TV settings.  It may not help but have a look at them and try Auto if it is set to something else.

Good luck 🤞

[Unisoft]

4:3 programmes are actually encoded in a 1920x1080 picture size with the black bars either side encoded in normal circumstances. This sounds like a transport stream encoding  issue from uktv to Sky or Sky issue if they encode the pictures.

4:3 was only transmitted as 4:3 when AFD was used in the early days of digital TV. The public did not like their tvs changing ratios and often putting up on screen banners, so the broadcasters killed it off and decided to frame 4:3 programmes inside 16:9 instead so hd channels were always one resolution. It sounds like this is where 4:3 is getting resized incorrectly and stretched to 16:9 instead of black bar pillars either side and showing as the original intended 4:3 ratio.

If this is the case, your tv aspect setting won't help as you should be able to leave as 16:9 anyway and the correct ratio shape should still be shown if the stream encoded correctly. In short you shouldn't need to keep changing ratio due to the change described above.