Widescreen TV’s

One of the top selling points on newer TV models are Widescreen TV’s.  Widescreen TV’s offers people a new way to view their favorite television show and DVD’s.  If you are planning on buying a new television set this year, here are some tips on widescreen TV’s.

Widescreen TV’s are defined as TV sets that have a screen ratio of 16:9.  This is the same ratio as most movie theater screens.  The traditional TV set has a screen size of 4:3 and is much more boxy than the rectangular shape of the widescreen TV.  Most people already watch some of their programming in a widescreen ratio on their traditional TV set.  It is called a letterbox, and the picture is elongated and has two black bands, one above and one below.  With a widescreen TV, the picture does not have the letter box bands and fills the image on the screen completely.

High definition programming is shot and sent in widescreen 16:9 ratio, so if you have a widescreen TV, you can get the full affect of the picture.  If you have a 16:9 widescreen TV and would like to watch older programming that was originally shot in 4:3 ratio, that is not a problem, you can either watch the original programming with black bars on the side, magnify the picture, so that the image fills up the entire widescreen TV or use a feature that most widescreen TV’s have.  They elongate or stretch the picture to make it fit appropriately.  Almost all widescreen TV’s come with these affects to get the most out of your programming.  So no matter what programming you plan to watch, a widescreen TV is an excellent choice for that new purchase.