

Once you get into 1080p home theater, many people like to experience music concerts in HD on the big screen. As examples, here are some movies that are either done in 1.78, or have been modified to 1.78 for Blu-ray.īut beyond some films and all of the HDTV broadcast programming that are done in 1.78, many live music concerts on Blu-ray are in 1.78. A few, including some new and popular titles, are done in plain ol' 16:9 (1.78). Many people assume that all modern films are being done in the super widescreen 2.4 format. So 16:9 must be best for HDTV broadcast, and 2.4 Cinemascope must be best for movies, right? If you select a 2.4 screen, all of your 16:9 material will be "pillar-boxed" in the center of the screen with black columns on each side. For example, if you select a 16:9 screen, all of your 2.4 format movies will have black bars top and bottom. 2.4, you are really deciding how the various film and video formats will appear on your screen. So in choosing between a screen aspect ratio of 1.78 vs. If you don't, there are several ways to stretch, manipulate, or crop video images to get them to fill a 16:9 screen and eliminate the black bars.) (By the way, we're assuming you want to see the material you watch in its correct original aspect ratio, as the director created it. In both of those cases, the screen frame will match the picture precisely, and no black bars will exist.
16 9 LETTERBOX MOVIE
The only time you don't get black bars is if you are viewing video or film shot in the format of the screen you are using-either a film done in 1.78 displayed on a 16:9 screen, or a movie shot in 2.4 on a 2.4 Cinemascope screen. So no matter what aspect ratio your screen is, you will always end up with black bars at the top and bottom of some material, and black pillars at the sides of other material. Here is a simple fact of life: Videos and movies are made in a variety of different aspect ratios.

Many people prefer it because it matches the aspect ratio of a lot of movies being produced today. This is a wider format than standard 16:9. But if you are planning to use a projector and screen, you have another option, which is 2.4:1, commonly known as the Cinemascope format. Though they come in a wide variety of sizes, they are all 16:9 aspect ratio. If you are going to use a flatscreen HDTV for your home theater, you are stuck with the 16:9 format for better or for worse.
