What is Anamorphic Widescreen Video?
More and more video is being shot in a 16×9 aspect ratio. The standard 4×3 that we are all used to is slowly going away. Widescreen video fills the newer widescreen televisions, more closely mimics high definition video, and is similar to the way in which our eyes perceive our surroundings. It also contains a larger canvas on which we can create our visions. DVD-video was designed specifically to allow for widescreen viewing. If using a standard 4X3 display, widescreen video can then be shown in letterbox (with black at the top and bottom). The same video can be expanded to fill a 16×9 widescreen television. The video used for such DVDs is called anamorphic. Those DVDs that use the anamorphic technique typically specify “anamorphic widescreen”, “enhanced for 16:9”, or “enhanced for widescreen televisions.” Anamorphic video gets the most resolution it can out of a standard NTSC video signal. It takes the widescreen image and squeezes it horizontally to fit a 4X3 video stream. This way,
