Wide screen television formats

Digital widescreen format is the format of the future. Today, you can only get the full benefit of watching 'true' widescreen (called 16:9 format) by having both a widescreen television and digital reception. This is because most broadcasters only transmit 'true' widescreen on their digital broadcasts. The situation in Europe is markedly different from the snails pace of roll out in the USA where even the projected digital transmissions are still in 4:3 aspect ratio (460i) All the UKs networks are now available in widescreen digital and a growing number of European stations are rapidly coming on line.

The key benefits of widescreen are:

Your digital set top box decoder has settings which let you specify the size of TV screen that you have. You have to set this format to suit the TV screen you have (either 4:3 or 16:9 format). Integrated digital television sets usually are widescreen format and already are set up to receive the picture appropriately.

Programmes broadcast in widescreen have wider, better pictures which appear more natural to the eye. Widescreen television therefore provides a better viewing experience. It is interesting to note that in the 1950s film changed over to widescreen format to compete with the growing popularity of television. In Europe the revitalisation of the television industry has largely come about with the introduction or regular digital widescreen services.

Digital technology is rapidly being adopted by everyone and will become standard in the future. The British Government aims to switch off standard (analogue) television for good at some point in the next 10 years as do some European governments.

Modern TVs also have a range of options for picture settings which allow you to modify the picture format. On an old standard television set (called 4:3 format) programmes broadcast in widescreen don't fit the TV screen properly. to compensate for this during the transition period more widescreen transmissions are appearing on analogue TV services, using another interim format known as 14:9.

Typical European wide screen and 4:3 test cards

Test card G in wide screen 16:9 and 4:3 formats

In Europe the Commitment to Widescreen is becoming universal. In the UK all new material is now shot and broadcast in widescreen and converted to 4:3 format for analogue transmission which are scheduled to cease transmissions in the next few years. Widescreen televisions have been on the market for years, but until recently, they suffered from a lack of suitable widescreen material. Not anymore. Many UK digital television broadcasts are now in the widescreen format - 50% of the BBC's peak-time programmes, 25% of Sky Premier films and a half of FilmFour films are in the widescreen format, for example. Widescreen transmissions are also ideal for big sports events and music concerts. Most DVD region 2 titles in Europe are in widescreen mode.

Most set manufacturers are now producing all their large screen TVs in widescreen versions only for distribution in the UK and the EU unlike the USA where they are few and far between.

Digital high definition television was introduced in America in 1998. Unlike current NTSC televisions, these new digital televisions will be wide screen and feature an aspect ratio of 16:9. DVDs that feature the anamorphic enhancement are geared towards the future of home theater and are the only current play back medium in the USA designed to take advantage of the wider aspect ratios of the new televisions. These 16:9 enhanced DVDs offer more resolution than their unenhanced counterparts, so they actually fill the full width of the new wide screen televisions.  There are also non-high definition 16:9 aspect ratio televisions on the market, which cost significantly less than the new hi-def sets.  These 16:9 aspect ratio televisions also benefit from anamorphic enhanced DVDs.

Most Europeans have now seen the future and it is definitely wide screen. The square (4:3) television picture that we have all grown to know and love is a thing of the past. Wide screen televisions are far more dramatic and home theater buffs are certain to see wide screen televisions as far more cinematic. 

BBC Wide screen 16:9 and 4:3 Test card F

A quick trip around a high-street electrical store or department soon reveals the changing shape of television. More and more televisions are being launched with widescreen displays, designed for the new age of digital television and the growing popularity of DVD. Conventional televisions have a 4:3 display, which means that the screen is four units wide and three units high.

But widescreen sets have a screen that is sixteen units wide and nine units high (16:9), a display that looks more like a cinema screen. When many films are transmitted for television, the image is cropped at the sides to fit the 4:3 screen. This means that any action at the side of the picture is lost. Widescreen televisions allow viewers to watch a film in a format that is closer to how the director intended it to be seen.

Widescreen TVs have a zoom feature that can magnify a 4:3 picture to fill the screen, although this can produce some distortion. Zoom with sub-titles, expands the 4:3 picture, but lifts the bottom portion so that subtitles and other text information can be viewed. An auto-switching system detects whether an in-coming signal is 4:3 or 16:9 and displays it accordingly.

There is no doubt that widescreen is the shape of the future for television, and soon, most large screen sets (24-inches and above) will be widescreen. Almost all digital TVs are widescreen models, and an analogue widescreen set can be converted to a digital TV by simply connecting it to a digital set-top box.