What happens to full screen movies on widescreen TVs?

Question

My dad is looking to buy a movie and a new TV, but he doesn't know what version of the movie to buy, and he wants to know what will happen when you play the full screen if he buys a widescreen TV.

Answer 1

Hi. Widescreen TVs have adjustments to alter the aspect ratio of what's showing on the screen.If you play a movie with a 1.33 :1 (Normal) aspect ratio on a 1.78 :1 TV (Widescreen) you will get the unused portion of the screen blacked out (side bars).You can also "stretch"the normal image to fit the whole screen with minimal distortion of the image.Of course it is always best to buy the Widescreen version of any movie to watch on a Widescreen TV to enjoy the original aspect ratio that is seen at the Cinema.

Most of the movies in the past were filmed in greater aspect ratios than the standard (1.78:1) Widescreen TV. for example 2.55:1 (CinemaScope) 2.35:1 (Panavision 70)and 2.2:1(Todd-AO).When these are shown on your TV there will be a bit of space top and bottom missing(black bars) because of the wider frame of the film but it is not very noticeable

Answer 2

Two things could happen. Either the image for full screen is "stretched" horizontally (side to side) to fit the wide screen (this can cause a little distortion but it really isn't even noticeable after a while), or the image will appear with black bars on the sides of the image (similar to "letterbox" on regular 4:3 screens but on the sides) Buy the widescreen if you have a widescreen TV but what happens in your situation really depends on the TV and the DVD settings.

Answer 3

Same thing as when you view widescreen on std. TV, just some bars on the top and the bottom of the screen , and maybe on the side depending on the movie's aspect ratio.

Answer 4

You get black bars on the sides. Or the picture is streched sideways - so Ziggy looks like Shrek