The standards for NTSC and PAL television systems set the horizontal x vertical aspect ratio to 4:3 or 1.33.

The horizontal x vertical aspect ratio for the new HDTV standard is 16:9.

The most popular content on DVD-Video discs are movies whose horizontal x vertical aspect ratio is much wider than tall.

• Most films are 5.5:3 or 1.85
• Panavision or Cinemascope is around 7:3 or 2.35.

The challenge is to display the widescreen movie content on standard 4:3 television monitors (although this will change as widescreen TV sets become popular).

Despite all the variations of aspect ratios with different media, the DVD-Video medium accommodates only two aspect ratios:

• 4:3
• 16:9
• Note...the current DVD-Video standard will accommodate the aspect ratio of HDTV content, but cannot understand the different video standard associated with HDTV...in other words, current DVD players are incapable of playing HDTV content.

There are three places in which aspect ratio comes into play before DVD content can be played properly:

• SOURCE: The aspect ratio associated with the source content on a DVD-Video disc.
1. 4:3
2. 16:9

Demo 22: Monsters, Inc. > Set Up Version Widescreen Fullscreen

 

• PLAYER: The aspect ratio setting on the DVD player itself.
1. 4:3 Letterbox
2. 16:9 Wide
3. 4:3 Pan & Scan (ignore this one...no one is using it)

Demo 23: Desktop DVD Player Set Up Video TV Sccreen 4:3 (Letter Box) 4:3 (Pan&Scan) 16:9 (Wide)

 

• DISPLAY: The aspect ratio capability of the display TV or projection equipment. A mismatch results in distorted aspect ratios.
  1. 4:3
  2. 16:9

  Demo 24: Shrek (Widescreen Version) Set the DVD Player to 16:9 (Wide) Play a WideScreen Version of the Movie

   

An important combination to remember is that 16:9 content can be encoded onto a DVD-Video disc, but played back on a 4:3 projection system if the DVD-Player is set to 4:3 Letterbox.

• With the DVD Player set to 4:3 Letterbox, the 16:9 content on the DVD is entirely visible on the 4:3 display, but black horizontal bars are place by the player at the top and bottom of the image in order occupy the dead screen space on the television.
• The 4:3 Letterbox setting is the usual default on a DVD player.

Media Solutions at the University of Utah, in concert with the Western Folklife Center, did an experiment to see how the three factors (source content, player setting, and display device) interacted and what the resulting image looked like.

4:3 Letterbox