Which is the best ratio in HDTV: 16:9 or 4:3 (1 Viewer)

[Antonio_D]

hi all,i am planning to buy a Sony 65 inch HDTV but i'm hesitating between 2 ratios; 16:9(widescreen) or 4:3 .
Please give me all your suggestions about that.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Stephen Houdek]

Antonio,

The HD Standard is 16:9, not 4:3. 4:3 is the "old" standard.

I don't see a lot of use in buying a 4:3 HD TV. If you are going to get an HD you should get the 16:9 model. Your choice however. 16:9's are also excellent for DVD's.

Probably the wrong forum for this and a moderator will move it for you.

 

[Reginald Trent]

16:9 maybe the new standard, however, all HD content will not be 16:9. Just like DVD HDTV will consist of all aspect ratios including 4:3.

 

[Scott DeToffol]

Maybe SOME HDTV will be in 4x3. Most will be shown in the standard HDTV aspect ration 16:9.

 

[Reginald Trent]

That's a good guess but we don't know that to be a fact just yet, now do we? I'm sure we'll see plenty of older 4:3 programs shown in HD. We just don't know how long it will take for 16:9 to truly dominate. Irrespective of that I believe we'll see a good mixture of all aspect ratios. Especially early on.

 

[Dan Hine]

16:9 maybe the new standard, however, all HD content will not be 16:9.

If it is not in 16:9 it is not HDTV. That would classify it as EDTV (E for Enhanced) if the signal is 480p or greater or SDTV (S for Standard) if the signal is 480i. Either EDTV or SDTV could be in a widescreen format but there is no specified aspect ratio to follow. HDTV is required to be in 16:9 aspect ratio otherwise the program falls into one of the other categories. Unfortunately, I don't see us moving to an HDTV standard, only DTV. The broadcasters can make more money by sending out 5 SDTV channels than 1 HDTV channel.
But to answer the question, I would go with a widescreen set because of HDTV programming and DVD's. Would you rather your movies be bigger or your news and sitcoms?

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

16:9 is the future whereas 4:3 is almost obsolete. So why would anyone want to buy 4:3 and that too for HDTV? Never mind, I guess everyone to their own.

Sanjay
Member since 1997

 

[Scott DeToffol]

Watch CBS on most nights - all HDTV 16x9

Plus! all the sports specials will be 16x9: MNF 2003, SuperBowl this January, Masters, NBA Finals

Plus, CBS and ABC are currently showing movies in 16x9 - they look like DVD.

There is tons of content, and more every week, and almost all of the HDTV is 16x9.

Some of the digital TV (not high-def) will be 4:3 - but you don't need a HDTV monitor for that.

PLUS! Dvd is amazing with a 16x9 TV.

 

[Reginald Trent]

Dan, you make good points. Therefore, I'll revise my post. All content broadcast on HD channels will not be true High Definition you will still get a mixture of various aspect ratios, including 4:3.

 

[Scott Tucker]

Antonio, if I sell 100 tv's tomorrow, 90 of them will be 16x9. That will at least give you an idea what the general public is buying. BTW, if i do sell 100 sets tomorrow, drinks are on me.

Scott

 

[Michael Mathius]

Antonio:

Two years ago I was faced with this same question and got a Sony KP53HS10 which is a 4x3 tv but is also able to correctly display 16:9 material. This allowed me to enjoy dvds and dss without any video resolution loss.

Today there is a lot more hdtv available but only if you can get ota in your area or if you have a dss system. I've been enjoying hdtv for a year now and would definitely look at getting a 16:9 tv if hdtv is available in your area.

 

[Joe Szott]

Antonio,

I am going to swim contrary to the opinion here and say that for the next 10 years, 4:3 is usually better to buy than 16:9. Let me preface all this by saying that I recently spent 3 months looking into HDTV and bought a 16:9 for reasons other than aspect ratio (I bought a Mitsubishi tabletop HDTV that sits up off the ground so my toddler couldn't pound it.)

Why go 4:3 instead of 16:9? Because all 480i broadcasts are in 4:3 ratio and only a handful of HDTV channels use 16:9. Plus, 4:3 TVs are usually cheaper than the equivalent 16:9 TV, so you really are getting more for your money. So when you watch 4:3 broadcasts, there is no 'Stretching' or widening of the picture as it is in it's native format. If you watch 16:9 HDTV, you just get some black bars on the top/bottom like normal. But ... since you can afford more 4:3 screen size for the price, you end up watching about the same image size as the comparable 16:9. Plus, most DVDs released today are in 2.35:1 format, not 16:9. So with a 16:9 TV you STILL get little black bars on the top/bottom of the screen. So who cares if the little black bars are a bit bigger for a 4:3 HDTV?

The point is you don't lose a whole lot for DVDs or HDTV, but you gain a lot more screen area for analog broadcasts, VHS, S-VHS, or video game machines.

If there was a tabletop 4:3 Mitsubishi, I would have bought that model instead. All this ranting aside, 16:9 HDTV is still vastly superior to any non-HDTV set you could buy -- the difference between 16:9 HDTV and 4:3 HDTV is a matter of preference.

 

[Mary M S]

A matter of preference

I agree wholeheartedly with that quote. Just a reflection, I purchased the KF60DX100 60” SonyGW 16:9.
I had slight concerns about how I’d feel about 4:3 programming on it, but the ‘shape’ of a 16:9 screen on a simple organic architectural level pleases me.
If you are careful in the ability of the model you chose to diminish stretch effects, (some are terrible, - mine does the job well and newer models keep improving). I will NEVER go back to a 4:3. Regardless of whether my display would receive 1080i,720p,480p,480i, everything looks better to me in 16:9 aspect. From ‘I Love Lucy’, old black & whites, and current sitcoms, to CNN.

One of the more heated arguments I’ve seen, most men mention sporting events as their biggest concern when contemplating a 16:9 set. I can’t imagine who wouldn’t rather watch a football game laid out in 16:9 AR (mimicking the actual rectangular shape of the field) than 4:3.

But it is really a matter for what your 'eye' likes. If your in the stores and find yourself standing in front of the 16:9 screens all the time, (like I did) that may be a clue to what will make you happy at home, regardless of the amount of HD signals available.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

But it is really a matter for what your 'eye' likes.

Nature has put our eyes, side by side, which translates into human beings see more in the horizontal plane rather than on the vertical plane. Quite simply 16:9 is generally more pleasing and natural to a human view than 4:3. We see wider than we do tall.

Sanjay

 

[Todd Schnell]

Well said Dan, & I agree completely.

I faced this same dilemma a few years ago, but after researching & a few demos widescreen became the clear answer to me.
I went with A Mits 55807 55"HD.

Widescreen is the future (the present for DVD), & Antonio if you watch a lot of DVD movies the 16:9 set is a no brainer imo.

On a 4:3 set widescreen movies are going to look significantly smaller compared to standard 4:3 programming.

I'd rather the standard programming look a bit smaller, or I'll stretch if it looks ok that way.
That way when I pop in a widescreen DVD movie the image is larger & my set really shines.

Also if your into video games many include a 16:9 option, but if not most look fine stretched imo.
Games like DoA3 or Starfox Adventures look glorious in 16:9
480P!

Your call, but go demo trying both standard (for now) & widescreen sets with standard & widescreen material.

Good luck!

Todd

 

[Antonio_D]

first, i wanna say thank you to everybody who answered my thread.

I was reading what everyone said about the subject and i noticed that Todd pulled out a very important issue,which is 16:9(widescreen) in videogames.
I wanna know if for example i play my gamecube game on my 16:9(widescreen)TV and that the game does not incorporate "widescreen option" will it take the full screen or it will put "black bars", in the bottom and in the top of the screen.

Thanks a lot guys!

 

[Todd Schnell]

The general answer to your question is no there will not be black or gray (many models use gray) bars unless the game is meant to do such.
Some games add the black bars as a sort of fx for cinemas etc.
There will be bars on the sides in this scenario, but most if not all widescreen TVs let you stretch the image horizontally to fill screen if you wish.
Make sure to pick up the component video cable for the Cube.

Todd

 

[Stephen Houdek]

Roger Dan,

If it is not 16:9 it is NOT HD. Programs you see running today in HD are either 16:9 or they aren't HD. Its as simple as that......The camera's for HD can't do anything but 16:9...

 

[Stephen Houdek]

With the Xbox at least, I've yet to run into a game that won't support 16:9 aspect ratio as well as 5.1 sound. (Not that I have a ton of games for it) But this seems to be the norm for that gaming platform.

 

[Sean M]

Halo doesn't support 16x9 and neither does Max Payne. There are actually far fewer games that support 16x9 than you might think. I don't own a RPTV, but rather I have a CRT projector so I can modulate the aspect ratio at will. I started with a 4x3 screen, then went to 16x9 and now I'm back to 4x3. Why? Well, because I watch far more content that is 4x3 rather than 16x9. I don't really care all that much about HD at this point and I spend more time playing video games than I do watching DVD's, even though I've got far more DVD's.

There are no good options for displaying 4x3 on a 16x9 screen. All of the stretch options compromise the picture. This is fine for cable broadcasts that you don't care about, but a significant portion of my DVD collection is also 4x3 and that is unacceptable. You can windowbox 4x3, but grey bars wreck image quality and unless you have a digital RPTV black ones are out of the question. With an RPTV I suppose you could use grey bars and make masks for the sides, but that gets annoying. It's starting to wear on me just using masks for 16x9 DVD's.

I really think that you need to examine just what aspect ratio the content you'll be watching most or care about the most is going to be in. If that's 16x9 and you don't care about stretching 4x3, then the choices is clear. If you watch more 4x3 and care about it more, then I would go with a 4x3.