A wide-aspect-ratio television signal is encoded for transmission within a standard-television-signal-compatible format is encoded by dividing the television signal into center-panel segments from which the horizontally central portion of a television picture produced from said wide-aspect-ratio television signal is displayed in accordance with a standard-television-signal aspect ratio, and side panel segments from which the left and right side portions of the television picture produced from said wide-aspect-ratio television signal are displayed in accordance with the wide aspect ratio; arranging the center panel segments for transmission in the standard-television-signal-compatible format; reducing the spatial frequency extent of at least a portion of said side-panel segments by vertically expanding said portion; and inserting said vertically expanded portion of the side-panel segments for transmission during transmission of said center-panel segments in a manner that enables said inserted portion of the side panel segments to be separated from the center panel segments. The center-panel segments are transmitted in a temporal-vertical-frequency domain that includes Fukinuki holes; and the vertically expanded portion is inserted within said Fukinuki holes. The signal is further encoded by producing an augmentation signal from the side panel segments, which includes side-panel chrominance information and low-horizontal-frequency and low-vertical-frequency side-panel luminance information; modulating the side-panel chrominance information of said augmentation signal within a predetermined frequency band that does not overlap said low-horizontal-frequency and low-vertical-frequency side-panel luminance information; and inserting said modulated augmentation signal within the vertical blanking interval for transmission. Different encoding and separation modes are used when the source is 24 frame per second film exploiting the 3:2 pull down scheme.