Fios HD in the Boston area. Why do some stations have bars on the side?

Question

The bar show up on the local news stations. NBC(7) and CBS(4) always have them, ABC(5) is full screen. At prime time (8:00PM)all are show in full HD for the rest of the night. Even with the bars it is a great picture. If anyone lives in the Boston area and has Comcast HD, do you get a full HD screen when watching the 5 or 6 PM news on 4 or 7?

Answer 1

One of the best things about FIOS I have to say is that they use a proud union work force, not contractors that get paid by the job. You can be sure that your job will be done the the highest standards.

Having FIOS also means that you will have your own direct line from your home to the CO (central office), and you will not be sharing your signal with anybody. If you have cable for your Internet and experience slowdowns at specific times, that is because you are sharing your signal with your neighbors, neighborhood, and local area. I also like that with FIOS if you ever loose power you will still have dial tone because of the bbu, that is if you have a non cordless phone.

As far as the cost, it all depends on what services you get. Such as type of stb (set top box) standard, standard dvr, hd, hd dvr. As well as options such as movies packages, internet speed (5/2, 15/2, 15/5, & 30/5) as well as your landline services

Answer 2

They are not HD programming. The bars show that the show is displayed in 4:3 letterbox. The ones without the bars are 16:9 widescreen. Again the bars are caused by standard definition programing.