How come Widescreen TVs are not made in 1:85:1 or 2.35:1 size? (1 Viewer)

[M_a_r_k^NE]

HT Gurus,

Why are today's standard widescreen tvs in 16x9 (1:78:1) aspect ratio? Most movies are shot in 1:85:1 and 2:35:1 ratios. 2:35 we get some black bars unless you do the dreaded zoom feature. Zooming is a trade off for the picture quality. I want the picture in its purest form. Of course, 4.3 is 1:33:1, but I believe 1:78:1 (16x9) is the standard that is now functional on all widescreens because of High Definition trademark and thats the size they went with. So we suffer while watching movies? Why not make the freakin tv in 1:85 or 2:35 size so we have a filled up screen and no black bars? Hello? Or from now on, directors film movies at 1:78 ratio, but I dont think thats gonna happen either.

This question above probably has come up before. Is this some mass joke on the public by the tv manufacturers? or a big conspricy to get more money out of us later? What gives?

 

[Garrett Lundy]

It was the best all-round way to have a new aspect ration and still have functional conversion. 1.33:1 material on a 2.35:1 TV would look like ass.

And no matter what aspect ratio your TV is, directors will always use another ratio just to be "differant" from TV.

 

[Sean Moon]

1.78 is the happy medium. Overscan pretty much makes 1.85 material fill the screen. 1.33 is slimmer, so there are slight bars on the side, but 2.35 is wider so it needs bars on top. The ratio picked for HDTV is the best choice, as it is the most adaptable with a fixed size display.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Man it took years for them to finally adopt 1.78:1 as todays "standard" TV's. CXan you begin to imagine how many lifetimes it would take to convert the average home display to 2.35:1?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Because. That would be logical!

But seriously, 16:9 is a good compromise, because no matter the AR you use, you will always have to mask or have bars because there are different ARs out there.

 

[Allan Jayne]

You mean you want to have several TV's in your room, one for each aspect ratio movie?

You could make wooden frames with the desired aspect ratio opening to fit in front of the TV, much less expensive, take up much less space.

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