Widescreen Explained | What are 16:9 & 2.4:1 Aspect Ratios? | How Panamorph & Lens Memory Work

Wow Beautiful explanation. That was an amazing video and enjoyed every second of it. Thank You

If anyone is building a home theater you should go for the CinemaScope aspect ratio. You likely have a tv somewhere to watch your shows. That’s my opinion.

Thanks Tom Cruise 🙏

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Talks about aspect "ratios", then incorrectly gives a ratio as a sum... 4:3 isn't 4 by 3, a RATIO is 4 IS TO 3.

The only time 4 by 3 (or whatever ratio you're incorrectly stating as a sum) would be correct is if the sides of the screen are that actual size, 4 foot X 3 foot... it still is not a ratio, it is a sum...

Why can't you "experts" get this right?

Thanks for the informative video! What does one do for 2.76 content?

1.78:1 (16:9) is the best AR for Home.
IMAX Enhanced Films are 1.90:1
IMAX BluRays switch btw 1.78 & 2.39
1.78 can contain all 1.85:1, 1.90:1, 2.20:1 & 2.39:1. Plus, most TV Shows are 16:9.

Great video, definitely thought this would be a pushy sales video but it wasn’t!

What is the difference between 2: 35: 1 vs. 2: 4: 1 most of the bluray movies being in 2: 39: 1 So what is the best between the two?

Best explanation yet! Wish I had bumped into this 45 minutes ago

One of the Best explanations. It's so much cleaner now. Crystal! 👍🙏

I have 2 question...
1. Why they are not shooting all movies in IMAX format.... who needs those black bars if there is room on the tv screen?
2. Why they still make dvd versions of the modern movies? 4k uhd player can be as low as $50 and 43 inch 4k tvs are like $249.

When you zoom a 16:9 image to 2.4:1 isn't this just fake 2.4:1? Don't you end up missing a bunch of the visuals?

In other words, the Aspect Ratios are all fscked up. You'd need several different aspect ratio TV,'s Projector's, ..., just to be able to watch full screen without cropping, black stripes, missing content, ...
The Video industry, just like the Audio industry, is a big non-standard, skrewed up mess.
Thx.

Which is better picture wise (absolutely beautiful, crisp, & stunning) in a room that's 18' × 25' with a 100" screen, a projector or a Samsung 4K modern television? Thanks 🙂

Extremely helpful video - thank you

So how do you get rid of the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when watching movies on Netflix etc.?

Way cheaper to have two screens. The wider screen can be motorized to come down in front of 16x9 painted on the wall.

Ah, these videos make me wish your company was in Singapore.

I watched your many videos about home theater atmos, it was a lesson for me

How do movies shot in imax (like Nolan batmans) come out on a wide screen ?

Finally an explanation of anamorphic lenses in plain language with useful visuals. Thank you!

Recreating the experience of the commercial cinema with a scope screen?? Not the cinemas in my city. They just use 16x9 screens, and you watch the movie with letterbox bars showing. They actually have an automatic masking system, to frame in a 2.40 movie, but now they're too lazy to use them. Now I wish the commercial cinema would recreate my home experience, where I use proper masking and don't see black bars.

Boss..I wanna ask one thing,any receiver onginal fuse,can change too other fuse for sound improve?TQ🙂

I wonder if theaters will once again move to an even wider aspect ratio or not if TVs ever become 21:9.

Very easy to understand now! Thanks for sharing. Great video!

How about framing curtains for the screen? With the black level of modern projectors are these needed?

Perfect bro nice explanation

I'm glad you made this video. I was interested to know why alot of people choose 2.4:1 over 16:9. I think it's really down to personal preference.
I can agree that 2.4:1 just has that wider, more impressive feel and it's also much more cinematic than 16:9. But even though I love 2.4:1 movies I would probably go for 16:9 if my room were to handle it. My reasoning behind this is because some movies are most shot in 2.4:1 but they have some scenes in the movie that were shot on imax cameras and the aspect ratio changes to 16.9. I say it would be a shame if that extra bit of immersion would be cropped out and plus 16.9 content on a 2.4:1 screen is smaller compared to 2.4:1 content on a 16.9 screen the width remains the same but extends in height.

Great video on the subject guys, one of the best for sure.

The range of aspect ratios is even wilder than this video explains. Just among the 90+ films since 1927 to have won the Oscar for Best Picture, the "original aspect ratio" (OAR) has ranged from 1.2:1 for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) & Cimarron (1931) to 2.76:1 for Ben-Hur (1959). 4:3 (1.33:1) started as the silent film ratio; after being temporarily narrowed for sound-on-film soundtracks (the 1.2:1 films), AMPAS developed "Academy ratio" (1.37:1, just slightly wider than 4:3) by tweaking other numbers, which was the standard from 1932-53. Since 1971, with only two exceptions -- The Artist (2011) at the old silent 4:3 / 1.33:1, Green Book (2018) at exactly 2:1 aka "Universium" -- all Best Pictures have been shot in widescreen at either "flat" (1.85:1, slightly wider than 16:9) or "scope" (2.39:1, or as you put it 2.4:1) ratios. (The Criterion Blu-ray of The Last Emperor (1987) is also "Universium", but that was a conceit by the film's cinematographer Vittorio Storaro who later created that ratio; it was shot at 2.39:1. I have an Italian 3D Blu-ray of that film at the correct OAR. Only Green Book was actually shot at 2:1.)

would it be possible to use widescreen with Optoma UHD 65 ?

Great explanation video! Thanks!

What’s crazy is that I figured this out without seeing this video. Hey these guys are great , shout-out to Seth who reaches out via email about a next gen receiver (I’m still waiting for my response on your reply ) but I got a Epson 4010 and went with a elite screens 125inch 2.35:1 screen. I LOVE IT. Everything he explained I was able to figure out and calibrate without watching videos . I just did my own research. But yea this works !! Don’t let them fool into buying a 10 k projector or anamorphic lens .

Good content! The aspect ratio thing seems to cause lots of confusion.

wondering if someone got enough budget, can they use micro-led screen wall in the home theatre

When a Tv station channel airs a movie on their channel and you watch it on your TV at home and it fills the screen...but that same movie when you buy it on blu ray or 4k and watch it at home on your TV it has black bars at the top and bottom ,,,,how do the TV station show it in full screen ...but at your home with copy of movie on blu ray it has black bars ...why is this ???

Explained way better than any article out there.. kudos

Awesome video! Too bad you guys don’t do installs in Canada.

Since projectors are getting more common to project in the 2.78 aspect ratio they should produce disks than can project in that ratio not in letterbox

Great explanation. One nuance that maybe is a little graduate level for a video is to help people understand that with a Panamorph in place, the widescreen image area doesn’t suddenly manufacture more source pixels. The pixel count of the 2.4 sliver of the image is fixed, just as the pixel count for the black bars above and below are fixed. When you use the electronic stretch and optical compress method of widescreen display, the projector has to perform image interpolation to create information to fill the full pixel array of the imaging chip. The number of original source pixels remains the same. The biggest benefit, as you mention is that you’re using the entire light engine on image and not projecting black bars above and below the image.
Thanks again for all of your helpful videos.

Supper

Great video. Your Home Theater Designer tool would be even more helpful if you could toggle measurements to metric

Bravo AA.. Well done Sir. Keep up the great work

Thanks for sharing

Any recommendations on 2.40 lens memory 4k projectors. I know of Epson 6050u but thats not true 4k.

Sometimes a movie switches between different aspectratio's, how do you co-op with that?

Excellent video - you made some very hard to understand concepts easily understandable - nice!

This video is a great explanation of widescreen. The visual aids were extremely well done.