What is an aspect ratio?
An aspect ratio refers to the dimensions of a television screen or other screen. The ratio refers to the width of the screen in relation to the height of the screen. The aspect ratio of today’s traditional TV is 4:3. For comparison, the aspect ratio of a square screen would be expressed as 1:1 or 4:4. The aspect ratio of HDTV will be 16:9. This is similar to the aspect ratio that many motion pictures are shot in. The 16 refers to the width of the screen and the 9 refers to the height of the screen.
Aspect ratio refers to the ratio of width to height of a television set. Traditional television sets have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Widescreen television sets have a 16:9 aspect ratio. Traditional television sets are almost square in appearance; widescreen displays are more rectangular. DVD has the unique capability to display movies in 3 different ways: Widescreen, which provides a special “anamorphic video” signal that, when processed by a widescreen television set, fills the entire screen and delivers optimum picture quality . There is a Pan and Scan version that fills the screen of traditional 4:3 television sets with an entire picture, much like watching network movies, and then there is a special letterbox mode that provides horizontal bands at the top and bottom to, in essence, create a widescreen picture in a traditional television set.
A. Aspect ratios are the different screen sizes that a movie can be filmed in. Also known as OAR (Original Aspect Ratio). This is usually the director’s choice, and it usually can range from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1. That is, the screen is 1.85 times wider vs. tall. Standard television is currently 1.33:1.
An aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of an image. For example, a square has an aspect ratio of 1:1 (the height is the same as the width). 35 mm film has an aspect ratio of 3:2, which produces 6″ x 4″ prints with no cropping. Each picture size has a different aspect ratio. A 6″ x 4″ print is 3:2, a 7″ x 5″ print is 7:5, and a 10″ x 8″ is 5:4.
