4:3, 14:9, 16:9

I'm confused... what does 4:3 look like on Normal and W/S TVs, what does 14:9 look like on Normal and W/S TVs, and what does 16:9 look like on Normal and W/S TVs? Please end my confusion!  

4:3 fills a 4:3 set, but has pillarboxing at the sides, 14:9 has thin bars at the top and bottom on 4:3 sets, and thin bars at the side on a 16:9 set. 16:9 either has revolting black bars, or is streched vertically on a 4:3 set and fills a 16:9 set.

4:3 (or 12:9 as it's sometimes called now) is the old-fashioned television shape.  It looks normal on an old television; but on a wide-screen set it fills the screen from top to bottom, but has a wide black bar down each side.

16:9 is the 'new' wide-screen shape.  It fills the screen on a wide-screen set; but on an old fashioned set it fills the screen from left to right, but has a wide black bar above and below the picture.

14:9 is the 'compromise' size that many broadcasters are using to transmit programmes during the changeover.  Programmes transmitted this way will have been MADE in 16:9 and will be transmitted in 16:9 on digital systems (Sky Satellite, ITV Digital and DIGITAL cable).  14:9 has a narrow black bar all the way round on a wide-screen set; on an old fashioned set it fills the screen from left to right, but has a narrow black bar above and below.  14:9 pictures transmitted by ITV1 on terrestrial send a control signal to wide-screen sets to put them into 'zoom' mode to better use the screen size, but seriously degrade the quality as only about 500 of the 625 lines are then visible on the whole screen height.

(Sorry James, I was taking a long time typing and you beat me.)


(Edited by Nick Harvey at 6:34 pm on Nov. 30, 2001)

#Moderation Mode



<a href="http://www.tvforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=1&topic=1428" target="_self">Moved here</a>

http://www.tvhome.f2s.com/upload/diagram.gif

hope this helps

They're good diagrams, thanks Martin - they clear up my confusion at least!!

I'd only take exception to the 14:9 picture on the wide-screen television in the diagrams.

Martin's diagram shows how it looks in '14:9 zoom' mode.  If a 'pure' 14:9 picture was on a wide-screen television, then there would also be narrow black bars top and bottom.

14:9 zoom mode is all very well for filling more of the screen and making the picture look bigger, but because you only then see 547 lines (625X14/16), the definition leaves an awful lot to be desired.

Just to keep you all confused (please ignore this paragraph if you ARE), there's also a 16:9 zoom mode on wide-screen sets, that gives a dreadful 467 lines (625X12/16) definition.  I think that mode's only for playing back videos you recorded in the wrong mode.

(Edited by Nick Harvey at 9:59 pm on Nov. 30, 2001)

Its a shame that the BBC are expanding with their 14:9 cropping. First the news, then CBBC. Its obviuosly going to spread to other programmes sooner or alter.

Yes, agreed James.

I'm THANKFULLY in the position of having a wide-screen telly and digital (off the satellite, I'm afraid, from Sky), so all the stuff produced in 16:9 looks fine to me.

However, the powers-that-be are DEFINITELY pushing people to wide-screen and digital of some kind; as anyone with a 4:3 telly now gets 'squeezovision' of some kind for most of the time.

If you're old enough, it's a bit like watching black-and-white 405 lines with the superimposed 'THIS SERVICE CLOSES SOON' caption.

Here's my Diagram. Fully coloured, and labelled!

http://www.tvhome.f2s.com/upload/Screen%20Ratios%20GIF.gif

Hope that helps even more

Why dont you point out most people use 14:9 zoom?

Which is...