Today we are going to discuss a topic that while not directly networking based, does relate to many of the MediaLounge products D-Link makes. The topic is defining the size and shape of televisions and computer monitors. You can watch the accompanying video by clicking here.

Size is a very simple concept. The size of your television is determined by measuring diagonally from one corner to the opposing corner. So, you would start at the bottom left and measure to the upper right or from upper left to bottom right. This is the same for both full screen and wide screen TVs.



Whether your television is full screen or wide screen is determined by the Aspect Ratio. An Aspect Ratio is shown as a number, such as 4:3 or 16:9. The width is the first part and the second is the height. The two most common aspect ratios are 4:3 or Full Screen and 16:9 also called Wide Screen. There are many different wide screen aspect ratios, such as 1.85:1 ans 2.39:1, but I will use 16:9, as it is the most common.

The 4:3 aspect ratio was standardized for televisions after the advent of optical sound-on-film for motion pictures. That way movies could be easily converted to a television format. The 16:9 format was created to differentiate the "Big Screen" from the television screen back in the late '40s early '50s when movie ticket sales were down, so viewers would have a reason to go back to the movie theaters.

So, what does 4:3 and 16:9 mean? As mentioned before, an aspect ratio refers to the shape of the screen on your television or computer monitor. So, at it basics, it is just a measurement. A screen that is 4" x 3" would be full screen and one that is 16" by 9" would be wide screen. This ratio is always the same no matter how big the screen itself is.





Letterbox is a term we were introduced to when movies started coming out in wide screen format, but most of us still had full screen televisions at the time. Since the screen is 4:3 and the source is 16:9, you end up with black bars at the top and bottom.



Pillarbox is what you will see when you watch a full screen source on a wide screen television. The source is 4:3 and the screen is 16:9, so we get black bars on the sides of the screen. Many people with wide screen TVs see this on a lot of television channels.



Windowbox is what happens when the original source is wide screen but is shown on a full screen channel and watched on a wide screen TV or computer monitor. This can be "fixed" on some TVs by setting the picture size to "zoom." But keep in mind that most likely said full screen channel is broadcasting in standard definition, not high definition, so the picture may be pixilated when zoomed.



So, now that we understand size and shape, next up, resolution.

A PDF of this blog is available for download by clicking here.

Some of the images in this blog were derived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29

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