Role of Aspect Ratio in Displays
October 11, 2008
What is Aspect Ratio?
Aspect Ratio is defined as the ratio between the width and height of an image. Movie theaters present films with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 2.39:1. Aspect ratios of cinematographers is denoted as decimal fraction for width to unit for height. The two main aspect ratios are 4:3 and 16:9. Here 4:3 is universal for standard definition video formats and 16:9 is universal for high definition television. 4:3 and 3:2 are the two common aspect ratios used in still camera photography.
Different Aspect Ratios
16:9 aspect ratio is the standard broadcast format for high definition television. With the same diagonal on the screen, 4:3 gives more area when compared to 16:9 aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is expressed mathematically as x:y. 16:9 is adopted as the standard broadcast format for high definition and digital TV in Europe. 4:3 screens are not as cheaper as the 16:9 screens. Aspect ratios in still photography is 4:3. There are number of aspect ratios available and this has led to a confusion in the minds of many. A widescreen display has an aspect ratio of 16:9 while a standard television display is 4:3.
Aspect ratios differ based upon the contents that are presented while the aspect ratio of the display device is fixed. Set up box that come with some TV sets is designed with an option to set the aspect ratio as 4:3 or 16:9. By any chance, if the aspect ratio is not set properly, the image may look distorted. Some set up boxes come with options to make settings for the images to be presented if all the aspect ratio of the display does not match. If the aspect ratio is not set properly, then the content will not be displayed well.
Pixel aspect ratio with regards to the video system is another complication related to aspect ratio. The nominal resolution of PAL video image is 720×576 pixels and that of the square pixel computer system is 768×576 pixels. The standard aspect ratio of most of the computer monitors and television sets is 4:3. Most of the American or Japanese or even European widescreen televisions come with the aspect ratio of 16:9. The 16:9 aspect ratio format is narrower than the widescreen formats used in cinemas.
Conclusion
Quality of pictures depend upon the aspect ratio. Correction of the aspect ratio is more important to get quality pictures. It is possible to correct the aspect ratio with the aspect correction function that is designed and introduced in to the AVS Video Editor. All video formats except MPEG and DVD can be corrected with this function.
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