
They are, for all intents and purposes, close enough to 16:9 to be considered synonymous. When shopping for wide-screen displays–especially flat-panel LCDs–you may see aspect ratios such as 15:9 or 16:10. Don’t be thrown off by other wide-screen aspect ratios.CNET reviews will always indicate how aspect-ratio control is restricted, so be sure to check when making a purchasing decision.
DOT BY DOT VS WIDE 480P
Some HDTVs, especially older models, restrict the number of available aspect-ratio choices with 480p sources as well.
DOT BY DOT VS WIDE FULL
In most cases, you’ll have full aspect-ratio control with 480i and 480p sources (generally standard TV and progressive-scan DVD, respectively), but often you get fewer options, or none at all, for HDTV resolutions (720p, 1080i, or 1080p). Almost every HDTV has aspect-ratio control, but most sets available today limit the number of choices you have, depending the incoming resolutions.

But as soon as you try to watch 4:3 content on a wide-screen monitor or 16:9 content on a 4:3 TV, you need to make some choices as to how you’ll compromise. On the other hand, 16:9 is the native aspect ratio of most HDTV programming it is 78 percent wider than it is tall, or fully one-third wider than 4:3.Īt comparable screen sizes, the wide-screen image is a distinct improvement: it offers a larger image, and the horizontal orientation is more akin to how your eyes–next to each other, not on top of one another–view objects.īoth of these formats work perfectly well when they match the TV screen’s native aspect ratio–standard programming on a 4:3 screen (any 1950s to 1990s Nick at Nite fare, for instance) and any newer, wide-screen material on a 16:9 set (HDTV programming or most DVDs). All the older TVs and computer monitors you grew up with had the squarish 4:3 shape–only 33 percent wider than it was high. The two most common aspect ratios in home video are 4:3 (also known as 4×3, 1.33:1, or standard) and 16:9 (16×9, 1.78:1, or wide-screen). The concept is simple enough: aspect ratio is the fractional relation of the width of a video image compared to its height.
