I have determined that ESPN/ABC doesn't believe that everyone has
wide screen TVs.
Basically what it does, as a result, is play the normal 4x3 TV ratio
and then fill the remainder of the wide-screen viewing area with the
empty back court and the crowd. There's more crowd across the top,
and an annoying news feed crawl across the bottom ("LeBron has a
hangnail!"). The score itself floats above the crawl.
I don't mind this in football season, as I can see how the defense is
aligned. However, in basketball season, it is a big waste of TV
screen and it shrinks the players (and the action) down to a small
area in the middle of the screen.
I had thought that my eyes were going - I buy a bigger TV and now the
players are smaller. Thank you ESPN!
So, the solution is on your cable or TV remote. Hit "Zoom 1." It will
zoom in the screen enough that the top and the bottom of what would
have been the normal TV are now the top and bottom of the widescreen.
The news crawl is no longer visible, and two-thirds of random blurry
crowd are gone as well. The score now sits exactly on the bottom of
the widescreen view (almost as if someone had planned it this
way...). No action is lost, and the players look large again.
If you are super close to the TV, you can tell that you are zoomed in
as the picture is slightly more blurry than un-zoomed HD, but still
better than old fashioned TV. From a little bit of distance (like at
a Gator viewing party), you can't tell the difference except that you
can still see the players and the ball, even if you are in the back
of the room headed for the nachos.
Everyone will wonder why the action seems so much closer on your TV
than at their house...
-Zeb
--
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