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CNET Reader Doug Hagemeister asks:
Hello! I was watching a movie on Blu-ray the other day filmed in the 21:9 aspect ratio and I realized that it technically wasn't "1080p" since about 1/4 of the screen was taken up by the horizontal black bars (called "letter boxing," correct?). Anyway, I was just wondering how many pixels were being used on the TV. Thank you!
Ah, letterboxing, how I love you.
To understand letterboxing, we have to talk about aspect ratio. HDTVs are 16x9, or 1.78:1. Slightly wider than they are tall, they're pleasantly rectangular. Old-fashioned tube TVs were 4x3, or 1.33:1, so closer to square.
The problem is, 1.78:1 doesn't correspond to any film aspect ratio. In fact, there is no standard film aspect ratio. Modern movies generally range from 1.85:1 (slightly wider than HDTV) to 2.39:1 (way wider than HDTV).
The 21:9 you mention only refers to one thing: the aspect ratio of the Vizio ultra-wide-screen HDTV (or the similar Philips model that wasn't sold in the U.S.). This is 2.37:1, which while not matching any exact film ratio falls right in between the 2:35:1 of older (pre-1970) films and the newer 2.39:1 ratio (also called 2.4:1 on Blu-ray).
Your question gets a largely semantic answer. The resolution... [Read more]
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