TV screens: widescreen vs. 4:3

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Whether you want a new bedroom set or a massive home-theater centerpiece, our CNET editors' guide gives you the full picture on shopping for a new TV.

Wide-screen vs. 4:3

Updated February 5, 2008
Television screens today come in two rectangular shapes. The most familiar one is called 4:3, which represents four inches of width for every three inches of height. You can also buy wide-screen, or 16:9, televisions, which take the same shape as many movies.

By now, nearly every TV capable of displaying high-definition is a wide-screen model, and we strongly recommend going wide for any TV larger than about 26 inches or so. The reason is simple: wide is the preferred shape of HDTV, and HDTV is the future. With a wide-screen TV, you can watch movies, high-def sporting events and most prime-time dramas and sitcoms in the expansive format in which they were meant to be seen.

Screen shape factors: Black bars and unused screen | Screen size calculator |
Wide-screen TVs and 4:3 programs

Black bars and unused screen

Many people choosing between 16:9 and 4:3 TVs wonder how much picture they'll be missing when viewing differently shaped programs. When a normal, 4:3 TV displays DVD or other wide-screen video, black bars, known as letterbox bars, typically appear above and below the wide-screen image. Conversely, regular programs shown on a wide-screen TV may have bars to either side of the picture. In both cases, some of the screen goes unused and the picture you're watching appears smaller.

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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

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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.

		Normal or 4:3: Places black or gray bars to either side of the 4:3 image.

		Zoom or Enlarge: Magnifies the entire image, eliminating the windowbox bars but cropping the top and bottom of the image. Often, more than one level of zoom is provided.

		Wide or Full: Used for native 16:9 content such as that found on DVDs. With 4:3 content, such as regular TV, it stretches the image horizontally, making people look shorter and fatter.

		Panorama, TheaterWide, or Natural: TV makers have many names for modes that compromise between stretching and zooming to fill the screen. Some stretch the sides of the image more than the middle, so people in the center of the screen look correct. Some crop a little so that they don't have to stretch as much.