Thank you Chris I'm happy to know about you again ;) Thank you Bob for your explanation. I'll think about it Enric

In a SD output, there are exactly the same number of pixels in a 4x3 image as there are in a 16x9 image. In a 16x9 image, the pixels are rectangular, where in 4x3 there are closer to being square. The resolution (and therefor the picture quality) is the same. With the DME's, you will not see any change in the aspect ratio of the picture as you go between 4x3 and 16x9. What changes is the grid system. In a 4x3 world, if you entered an X value of +4 (in Locate Size) to a full-screen DME picture, you would see the center of the image move to the right edge of the screen. In a 16x9 world, to achieve the same result, you'd have to enter an X value of +16. So in a 4x3 world, you are dealing with X & Y coordinates of -4 to +4 for the horizontal portion of the screen, and +3 to -3 for the vertical portion of the screen. In a 16x9 world, those numbers change to -16/+16 and -9/+9. So if you built a DME effect that flew to all 4 corners of the screen in a 4x3 world, when you played that effect back while in 16x9, you'd see that the image doesn't get to the corners. So it's the grid system that changes, not the image quality or image size - again, that is a function of putting your monitor in 4x3 or 16x9.

Hola Enric, como estas? In the SD world there is absolutely no difference between 16:9 and 4:3 from an "electronic" point of view. The 16:9 signal exists as an anamorphic image, which means it has been squeezed horizontally to fit into 720*576 pixels. During production, you would notice this only if your monitor was switched to 4:3 - everything would appear too thin. When this signal is broadcast using PAL+, a signal is sent along with it that tells a TV to expand the image out again - so on a 4:3 TV, you see black bars top and bottom, and on a 16:9, it fills the screen properly. On a TV without this detector, you get thin people, and egg-shaped circles. The benefit of this method is that all existing pixels are used for image content. On the other hand, if you have a letterbox image (which already has black bars top and bottom), then this is really a 4:3 image which only uses a portion of the screen. In effect, what switching a switcher to 16:9 mode does is adjust the circle wipe geometry (and the square wipe, too for that matter), and a DVE will produce a true sphere, for example. You should also notice that, at horizontal position values which are off screen in 4:3, you will still see the image in 16:9. You are correct that there is no resolution difference between the two - but, as follows from the above, using PAL+, you are using all the available pixels to reproduce the image, while in 4:3 letterbox, you are using a much smalle percentage of them, so the image quality is worse! Therefore, it is best, from a quality point of view, to broadcast using PAL+. In Germany, only the public broadcasters are doing this, afaik. From a production point of view, if you are not using footage which has already been letterboxed, this makes no difference to you. Switch everything to 16:9.... including your monitors! Cheers, Chris