Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 September 23

= September 23 =

People of Maltese Decent
It says on a wikipedia artcle that Britney Spears is of Maltese decent so can she be added to the Maltese people section? It looks like Danielle Fishel is on there, and her wikipedia page does not mention any Maltese heritage.

(This is my first time asking a question. I hope I did it right! Thanks!) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.71.19.247 (talk) 18:03, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Sort of :) This page is for asking questions.  Requests for changes to individual pages should go on that page's talk page.
 * Having said that, I've added BritneySpears to Category:American people of Maltese descent, and added her name to the list on Maltese American Do we need both of these??? . I've also added a "citation needed" tag to Danielle Fishel's entry there, as, as you say, there is no evidence of her Maltese descent on her page.  Rojomoke (talk) 18:42, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * She's a Malteser - how sweet. 92.15.8.96 (talk) 21:10, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Sports on TV
While watching NFL games on my 4:3 picture tube TV this season, I began to notice that the score in the upper left hand corner of the screen is cut off. I can only see the score for one of the teams, as if the score location were formatted for a 16:9 flatscreen TV. Is this in fact what is going on? In past seasons the top and bottom black bars were used to make the picture ratio consistent, which worked out well. Why would the networks change the format? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 19:25, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Fox just began framing its NFL and MLB broadcasts for 16:9 this year. In the past, widescreen was mostly treated as an afterthought, and all graphics were placed in the area where people watching on regular TVs could see them completely (the 4:3 safe area). Now, with more people switching to widescreen TVs, Fox focuses on making the picture look best for them. Pay-TV providers are required to letterbox their standard-definition Fox channel during games so the entire picture can be seen on a 4:3 TV. Some cable providers apparently do not have the proper equipment to letterbox, though, and Fox temporarily moved their score box back inside the 4:3 safe area for the NFL regular season (it was outside the safe area in preseason). Therefore, you should not have any trouble seeing the score; if you do, that may indicate a problem with your television. CBS has a score bar, and it's placed in the middle of the 4:3 safe area; if you can't see all of that, again, your TV has serious issues. Xenon54 (talk) 19:56, 23 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Xenon54 alluded to the safe area &mdash; our Wikipedia article on this is safe area. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:19, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I noticed in Week 1 that I couldn't see half of the graphics in the Fox games. I wasn't home last week; I'll see what happens this Sunday. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 03:38, 24 September 2010 (UTC)