importance of native resolution (1 Viewer)

[manxral]

im currently looking at some projectors. and i cant figure something out. if it says
the native RES is 4:3 and 16:9 compatibale what does that mean? is it bad for HT , is it good? why is it important to get a native 16:9 ? if they all are compatibale with each resolution , why is the native RES so improtant?

i mean - if i buy a native 4:3 which is 16:9 compatibale , why is that bad?

 

[Allan Jayne]

4:3 is at one end of the gamut of common aspect ratios so if your projector (or TV) is natively 4:3, then as the aspect ratio increase, you get progressively smaller pictures in terms of square feet.

16:9 for a native aspect ratio is in the middle so as the program material of different aspect ratios is viewed your picture is more nearly the same size each time. 1.85:1 is one of the more common aspect ratios for movies and is closest to the largest picture size while 4:3 (1.33:1) and 2.35:1 will be smaller.

Most persons after getting used to wide screen prefer the latter.

There are even some folks looking forward to 2.35:1 native projectors (will any exist?), near the other end of the gamut of aspect ratios, because they watch so little 4:3 material as not to mind that the 4:3 pictures will be the smallest.

Also, if the projector's resolution is less than about 768 vertically, having a native 4:3 aspect ratio means it cannot display regular DVD (480 high) 16:9 and wider screen programs with full resolution even if it has a 16:9 mode selection.

 

[manxral]

so, if i prefer a wide screen image , and i want the projector to display it
as wide and as big a possible , i should get a native 16:9 projector with an ability of 1024x768?
also, i guess i need to buy a 16:9 screen..