16x9 or 4x3 ? (1 Viewer)

[Ryan Belfast]

Can someone tell me what 16x9 and 4x3 exactly is and how it became that. I have a 32 Inch widescreen TV - so where does the 16x9 and 4x3 come in.
Sorry if tis is in the wrong place.

Thanx Guys!

 

[Nick Sievers]

Try this link, FAQ and Primer

 

[Mike~Sileck]

If you have a widescreen tv, you have a 16x9 tv. Older Tv's that looked like squares were in the 4x3 aspect ratio. (4 pixels wide for every 3 pixels tall). Newever tv's and hdtv's are 16x9 (like yours) and are referred to as widescreen because they are a lot wider than traditional 4x3 televisions. 16x9 is popular b/c it is a ratio used often by movies (check out a movie screen next time you go, it's not a square like your old-fasioned tv, its a rectangle, like the new 16x9 tv's).

Read that FAQ for more info, but the above is sorta bare basics.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

I realize that this was a basics question, so I hesitated to add this, but the aspect ratio of the set is not always directly related to the resolution capabilities. In most cases, you're right, but not always.

 

[PhillJones]

Indeed Chris, I've been looking at 42" plasma screens and haven't yet seen one with square pixels.

I actuality, CRTs don't really have a readily definable horizontal resolution. It's a bit more complicated than that and is really to do with frequency response.

The ratios can really only be thought of in terms of the physical shape of the screen. It's only really computer graphics cards and displays that the resolution and display shape are directly related.

 

[Brian McHale]

16:9 and 4:3 indicate a ratio of how wide a screen is to how tall it is. Let's say you have a widescreen and a non-widescreen tv that both have a screen that is 16" wide. The 16x9 screen would be 9" tall, whereas the 4x3 would be 12" tall (4:3 is the same ratio as 16:12).

by the way, this doesn't have anything to do with resolution or pixels; it's purely the physical ratio of width vs. height.

 

[Mike~Sileck]

Okay, so all hdtv's aren't necessarily 16x9, but 95% of them are. Sorry to confuse if I did