Widescreen Tv. Widescreen TVs have offered movie buffs an alternative to formatting or letterboxing that more accurately recreates the movie theater experience.

The formatting they are referring to is video formatting which is the process of cutting, stretching and/or squeezing images to fit different aspect ratios.

The problem with video formatting is that the image often becomes distorted or cropped at the edges when it's transferred. If the image is not cut, then it is stretched, squeezed and just generally reshaped to fit in those black bars called the letterbox.


Widescreen TVs have offered movie buffs an alternative to formatting or letterboxing that more accurately recreates the movie theater experience. For every 16 inches of width, they offer 9 inches of height -- and no cropping. With widescreen, films can be seen at home exactly as they were seen in the theater.

There are, however, two downsides. First, 16:9 TVs are noticeably more expensive than their 4:3 counterparts. Second, when you watch 4:3 broadcasts on a 16:9 aspect ratio, the TV stretches the image to fill the screen.

People look shorter and fatter and, depending on the screen size, the picture may appear grainy. Sports are still primarily broadcast for viewing on conventional televisions. If you watch a game on a widescreen, your favorite power forward may suddenly look more like a linebacker. Widescreen TVs have a tendency to stretch images intended for normal TV screens.

Many TV manufactures offer different picture modes on their widescreen TVs to help solve this problem. A 4:3 setting is usually available and works by putting black bars on the sides of the screen, called picture boxing.