[Maybe this would be better as a new or split thread? There's a lot of misunderstanding out there about widescreen.]
I thought you said you have analogue cable only? If so you are not getting true widescreen -- and your experience will certainly be different to mine, as I have NTL digital. Analogue NTL is 4:3. Or did I misunderstand you?
There is no point in reformatting older 4:3 material for widescreen as the resolution loss would be unacceptable, so there is always going to be a problem with older materials such as the Classic Albums (I was watching - Nirvana's Nevermind, good show!) programme. We will get used to this eventually. We cannot expect old shows to be broadcast in widescreen as this would mean zooming in and cutting off the top and bottom of the picture.
It's nevertheless a fact that almost all new British and Irish prime timeprogramming is produced and now broadcast in widescreen, with the exception of RTE news and some current affairs (Primetime IS widescreen).
Re imported programming, pretty much all American and British drama/documentary is widescreen. But if you're watching on analogue cable you're not seeing the whole picture. European shows (e.g. Winter Olympics, Spanish football are still 4:3 in the main, AFAIK) And yes, you often see panscanned versions of older movies, which is a pity, probably because these movies predate the DVD era (DVD players being the first domestic appliances capable of decoding anamorphic material for 4:3 sets) and have not yet been re-scanned from the original print.
I agree with your point about the TV listings, that would be useful information.
Here are some links to the subject:
[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/widescreen/
What's your setup exactly, Rainyday? Maybe we're at cross purposes here!