of ATSC and aspect ratio???

[Penthode]

PBS has the problem of not producing programs 4X3 safe. That is, the video must be letterboxed on cable to display the entire picture otherwise ssential elements will be cut off. The proble is that when an older 4X3 program comes along, it has black borders all aroung the video.

AFD (Automatic Format Description) is supposed to fix this. But most sets are not fitted with AFD.

I personally prefer to have some of the picture cut off as opposed to having black bars and a tiny picture. But the bottom line is the broadcasters are not handling this properly.