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Widescreen
16x9 TV
Info on widescreen 16x9 TV
In my opinion, the home cinema experience isn't really complete without an excellent TV to watch
your programmes on.
I know that when you go to the shop to choose a TV, you can, sometimes, be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of different sizes of TVs. They don't only come in
big and small sizes, but direct view, projection, LCD and Plasma flat panels. There's another thing to consider: Screen Aspect Ratio.
What is Screen Aspect Ratio?
Screen Aspect Ratio is simply a measure of the horizontal width of a television (or film)
screen, in relation to its vertical height. Or, put another way, a traditional TV has a Screen Aspect
Ratio of 4x3. This just means that a traditional TV has a screen that is four units long for every
three units in height.
Converting these units into inches would end up with measurements of 4-inches by 3-inches or
8-inches by 6-inches, and so on. On the same basis, on widescreen TV (such as current HDTVs),
the Screen Aspect Ratio is 16 units long for every 9 units in height, or 16-inches by 9-inches,
32-inches by 18-inches, etc...
A 16x9 screen aspect ratio gives a wider image display than a 4x3 aspect ratio. This wider image
display allows both films originally filmed in widescreen and new, widescreen TV programmes, to
be shown more accurately.
Why do we need 16x9 Televisions?
As we all buy more DVD, DTV, and HDTV, then you and I need to decide between getting a TV with
a traditional 4x3 aspect ratio, or the new widescreen TV's with a 16x9 screen aspect ratio. TV's with
a 16x9 screen aspect ratio are more suited to 16x9 and other widescreen programmes available on
DVD and HDTV broadcasts. But, we're more used to the traditional 4x3-shaped screen.
Now that there are more and more programmes available in widescreen formats, owners of 4x3 TVs
are watching a growing number of TV programmes and DVD films with black bars on the top and
bottom of their screens (commonly known as letterboxing).
Many people, not used to this, think that they are being cheated by not having the full TV screen
filled with an image. That simply isn't the case. Most films made after 1953 were (and still are)
filmed in various widescreen formats, such as Cinemascope, Panavision, Vista-Vision,
Technirama, Cinerama, or other widescreen film format.
The way widescreen films are shown on standard TV's
So that these widescreen films can be shown by filling the entire screen on a traditional 4x3 TV,
they are re-edited in a Pan-and-Scan format. They attempt to keep as much as the original
image as possible. Two characters might be talking to each other, but each is on opposite sides
of a widescreen image. If viewed full screen on a traditional TV without further editing, all you would
see would be the empty space between the characters.
To fix this, editors have to recut the scene for video by jumping from one character to the other as
they speak and respond to each other. The downside is that the intention of the film's director is
altered, becauseyou don't get to see the entire composition of the original scene, including facial
expressions or body language in reaction to the other character speaking.
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