Anamophic widescreen (1 Viewer)

[Jason*H]

Im not sure if this is the best place for the question but why are there so many widescreen formats.. And assuming I Have a standard widescreen Tv what size will fill it the most.

 

[John S]

Why ask why??? lol

No seriously, it is really mostly a matter of progression, to widescreen HDTV. I guess you just deal with them best you can with the system you have.

Is there a faq on here somewhere, where all the different sources / formats of the 4:3 and Widescreen formats that are out there are explained?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Jason, you might like to check out the HTF Primer.

I’m not really sure that I understand your question. Standard TV sets are in a 4:3 format. These sets best fit ‘classic’ movies, which are in 1.37:1 ratio or ratios close to that. If you do the math with 4:3, you get 1.33:1, so these movies fit a standard set very well. All other formats will have some unused space at the top and bottom of a standard set.

All widescreen sets (regardless of size) are at a 16:9 ratio. The standard movie format that most closely fits this display is 1.85:1. 16:9 reduces to 1.78:1 (rounded), so you will see that this is a very close fit. So close that almost all sets’ overscan allows the ;picture to fill the display. On some sets where the overscan has been greatly reduced, you will see very thin empty spaces (black bars) at the top and bottom.

Movies made with ratios such as 2.35:1 have empty spaces at the top and bottom, even on a widescreen set. They are quite large on standard set. Older, classic movies have empty spaces on the sides of a widescreen set.

There are a few front projectors that give the appearance of matching their display to the movie’s ratio. But just like a movie theatre, either some type of matting is necessary on the projection screen or you wind up with a screen that is not fully filled with a picture.

 

[Jason*H]

Thanks guys