Ultimate HDTV buying guide

Wide-screen vs. 4:3

We mentioned before that just about every television available for sale today is an HDTV. Nearly every one of those is also a wide-screen television. On a wide-screen, or 16:9, television, the screen takes the same shape as many movies and HDTV shows. The number represents 16 units of width for every 9 units of height. Wide-screen is the future of the television screen, and older, squared-off TV sets, with screens that have what's known as a 4:3 aspect ratio, are going the way of the dodo. Our buying advice is simple: get a wide-screen TV.

Black bars and unused screen
The complicated part is that the TV shows themselves aren't going wide screen as quickly, and older shows and reruns especially are still broadcast in the 4:3 aspect ratio. To view them on your wide-screen HDTV without distorting or cropping the picture, you'll need to waste a portion of the screen area, filling it with bars to either side of the image. Conversely, if you own an older 4:3 TV and want to watch wide-screen shows without distortion or cropping, you're stuck with bars above and below the picture.

Screen size calculator
To find out exactly how much picture you'll be missing with either kind of TV, check out our calculator below. Just enter the diagonal screen size and aspect ratio of the set you're considering, then hit Calculate.

STANDARD 4:3 TV

WIDE-SCREEN 16:9 TV

Wide-screen TVs and 4:3 programs
Don't want to waste space on black or gray bars? All wide-screen TVs have ways to stretch, crop, or zoom the regular 4:3 image so that it fills the wider screen. These methods distort the image somewhat, but many wide-screen TV owners prefer looking at slightly stretched people rather than black bars. Here's a quick rundown of a few of the different names for selectable aspect-ratio modes found on wide-screen sets. Note that these names always vary by manufacturer, so they may not match up with your HDTV exactly.