technical bulletin understanding aspect · pdf fileunderstanding aspect ratios ... adopted the...

TECHNICAL BULLETIN

Understanding Aspect Ratios

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3Understanding Aspect Ratios

Understanding Aspect Ratios

The first thing we want to do is demystify this phrase.An aspect ratio is simply a numerical way ofdescribing a rectangular shape. The aspect ratio of

your standard television, for example, is 4:3. This meansthat the picture is 4 “units” wide and 3 “units” high.Interestingly, professional cinematographers tend to prefera single number to describe screen shapes and reducethe familiar 4:3 television ratio down to 1.33:1, or just 1.33.This is most likely because they deal with a vastly largernumber of screen shapes than television people do andout of necessity, long ago, jettisoned bulky fractionaldescriptions.

The History Of Cinema Aspect Ratios

The original aspect ratio utilized by the motion pictureindustry was 4:3 and according to historical accounts, wasdecided in the late 19th century by Thomas Edison whilehe was working with one of his chief assistants, WilliamL.K. Dickson. As the story goes, Dickson was working witha new 70MM celluloid-based film stock supplied byphotographic entrepreneur George Eastman. Because the70MM format was considered unnecessarily wasteful byEdison, he asked Dickson to cut it down into smallerstrips. When Dickson asked Edison what shape he wantedimaged on these strips, Edison replied, "about like this"

and held his fingers apart in the shape of a rectangle withapproximately a 4:3 aspect ratio. Over the years there hasbeen quite a bit of conjecture about what Edison had inmind when he dictated this shape. Theories vary fromfrom Euclid's famous Greek "Golden Section", a shape ofapproximately 1.6 to 1, to a shape that simply savedmoney by cutting the existing 70MM Eastman film stock inhalf. Whatever the true story may be, Edison's 4:3 aspectratio was officially adopted in 1917 by the Society OfMotion Picture Engineers as their first engineeringstandard, and the film industry used it almost exclusivelyfor the next 35 years.

Because of the early precedent set by the motion pictureindustry with the 4:3 aspect ratio, the television industryadopted the same when television broadcasting began inthe 1930s, and today the 4:3 aspect ratio is still thestandard for virtually all television monitor and receiverdesigns. The same situation applies to video programmingand software. Only until recently has there been anysoftware available except in 4:3 format (letterboxed videosare the same thing electronically). There simply wasn't anyreason to shoot or transfer in any other aspect ratiobecause of the standard 4:3 shape of the televisiondisplays. For the home theater owner, this situation meansthat compatibility issues are essentially nonexistent with

Understanding Aspect Ratios4

standard 4:3 television receivers and standard 4:3programming. They are all "plug and play", so to speak, atleast when it comes to the shape of image.

Getting Wide

Back to our history lesson. After many years ofexperimentation, television broadcasting formally beganon April 30, 1939 when NBC broadcasted FranklinRoosevelt's opening of the 1939 World's Fair. As youmight imagine, the availability of a device that deliveredsound and pictures in the home immediately concernedthe Hollywood studios. After all, this medium had thepotential to erode their lifeblood; their vital payingcustomer base. When color was introduced in late 1953,the studios stopped wringing their hands and sprang intoaction. The result was the rapid development of amultitude of new widescreen projection ratios and severalmultichannel sound formats. Today, just a few of thesewidescreen formats survive,but a permanent parting of theways had occurred: film wasnow a wide aspect ratiomedium, and televisionremained at the academystandard 4:3 aspect ratio.

As we mentioned, the fact thatfilm formats went “wide” in the1950s never really impactedthe production end oftelevision. Everything stayedat 4:3 for them because of theuniformity of 4:3 televisiondesign. However, the transferof motion pictures tovideo...that was another story. The question is: How doyou make a wide shape fit into a narrow one? One wayyou've undoubtedly heard about "panning and scanning".This technique of transferring film to video requires that atelecine (video transfer) operator crop a smaller 4:3section out of a widescreen movie while panning aroundfollowing the movie's action. This technique, whenproperly done, actually works pretty well, but not everyonelikes the artistic compromise of "throwing away part of thedirector's vision". Not the least of which is the filmdirectors themselves, and one of the first to really object tothis process was Woody Allen. In 1979, when his filmManhattan was being transferred for television release, hesteadfastly refused to have it panned and scanned. Heinsisted that the feature be shown with the widescreenaspect ratio intact, and this lead to the technique of"letterboxing". Letterboxing, a method where the middle ofa 4:3 image is filled with a smaller, but wider, aspect ratioimage, may have had the blessing of Hollywood directorsbut was originally shunned by the viewing public. Theobjection was the black bars on the top and the bottom ofthe picture, people just didn't like them. Today, letterboxing

has gained much broader acceptance and you can find itavailable from sources such as prerecorded tapes(occasionally), broadcast television (occasionally), oncable and DSS (AMC and other movie channels broadcastin letterbox), on laserdisc (fairly common), and DVDreleases (very common).

So, what about displaying letterbox material with aprojection display? On a standard 4:3 display, the situationis pretty simple, letterboxed software can be seenbasically one way: as a stripe across the center of thedisplay with black bars top and bottom. On a widescreendisplay, you can do something different. The letterboxsection of the frame can be "zoomed into" so that theimage fills the wider screen essentially eliminating theblack bars. What is interesting about this technique is thatit is conceptually similar to what is done in professionalcinemas with standard widescreen releases with "matting".Our diagrams on following at the end of this chapter

illustrate this. By zooming theletterbox section in to fill thescreen, the audience simplysees a widescreen image. Themain difference between videodisplay and film display,however, is the way thezooming is done. In a movietheater, an optical zoom lensis used. In a CRT-based videodisplay, it is done byincreasing the size of thepicture electronically in thepicture tube, but with anLCD/DLP-based device it isagain done with an opticallens. (Note: one LCD projector

does "zoom" electronically, the SONY VPL-400Q.)

Are there any drawbacks to letterboxing as a generaltechnique ? As we mentioned, with the right equipment,letterboxed software can be zoomed to fill a wide screen,but you should know that this comes at a certain price.The issue is loss of vertical resolution. Let's take a mattedwidescreen film frame, as an example. There is finiteamount of resolution in a 35MM frame and, unfortunately,a great deal is taken up with matting. In video, the sameprinciple applies. In a standard video frame there is some480 lines of vertical resolution available and in theletterbox section, this number is reduced to about 320 to360 lines (depending on the degree of letterboxing). True,this doesn't have to affect the size of the letterbox section,depending on the size of your television, you have it aswide as what your display allows. However, regardless ofthe size of your display, the resolution will be less than afull video frame's capability.

A Bit Of A Stretch

4 Units

3 Units

ASPECT RATIO =Ratio of the Width to the Height of the

picture

This picture = 4:3 (or 1.33)


Back in the 1950s, the people at CinemaScope cameup with a novel solution to the resolution problemoutlined above. The solution was to optically squeeze afull widescreen image into a 4:3 film frame via a specialdevice called an "anamorphic lens". The genius of thisidea was that no major change was necessary in thecamera equipment or the theater projection equipment,all that was necessary was to place an anamorphic lenson the filming cameras to squeeze the image, and areverse one in the theaters to unsqueeze it. At first, itwas said, the Hollywood film community didn't caremuch for this odd technique, but after using it awhileembraced it hardily. The reason: it was an undeniablyelegant solution to the problem of producing anddelivering widescreen movies with equipment basicallydesigned for 4:3 format. What is particularly interestingabout this 40 year old technique is that a similarconcept is now being applied to widescreen electronicvideo releases. As we mentioned before, the black barsin a letterbox video release also represent lostresolution, just like in the cinema, and the letterboxsection is thus lower resolution. Again our concept ofanamorphic compression can be used to squeeze morepicture into a 4:3 space, but instead of lens, it is doneelectronically. Some of the first anamorphic videoprograms were pressed on laserdiscs but with the newDVD format, the concept is catching on big.

Displaying anamorphic images in a home theaterrequires a display device with the capability ofstretching out the anamorphic image horizontally. MostCRT-based projectors with digital convergence andpicture memories (typically graphics-grade projectors)should be able to unsqueeze anamorphic material,however some may require some special setup. Forexample, AmPro Corporation, a major manufacturer offront projectors for the home theater market, found thatsome dealer confusion existed about the proper setupprocedure for multiple aspect ratio configurations. Thisresulted in the company releasing a detailed technicalbulletin that guides an AmPro dealer/installer throughthe proper set-up procedure so that different aspectratios can be displayed and switched easily. If you arebuying a front projector from another manufacturer,make sure you are briefed on the proper factorytechnique. With LCD/DLP-based front projectors, thesituation concerning anamorphic software is more clearcut than CRT projectors. Most do not unsqueezeanamorphic material because picture size changes areaccomplished optically via a zoom lens. The only LCDprojector that we know of that does unsqueezeanamorphic material is the SONY VPL-400Q. It has a"full" mode that is designed specifically for this.

Variable Aspect Ratio Screens

As we mentioned before, many CRT-based projectors,

• Television = 1.33 (4:3) Aspect Ratio

• HDTV, Many Letterboxed movies = 1.77 (16:9) Aspect ratio

• Standard Cinema Widescreen = 1.85 Aspect Ratio

2.35

1

• CinemaScope Widescreen = 2.35 Aspect Ratio

1.85

1

1.77

1

1.33

1

Four Common Aspect Ratios


Video Signal

Projected On a 4:3 Screen

Projected On a 16:9 Screen

STANDARDVIDEO

4:3 NTSC Video from Broadcast TV, Cable TV,

DSS, VCRs, DVD, Etc.

Adjusted for minimum overscan

Adjusted for min. overscan on the top and bottom


on left and right sides

Adjusted soletterboxed sectionfills the 16:9 screen


on left and right sides

Adjusted soHDTV video fills the

16:9 screen

4

9

16

3

LETTERBOXEDVIDEO

4:3 NTSC Letterboxed Video from DVDs, Laserdiscs

and some broadcasts

HDTVHigh Definition

16:9 Video

4

3

}}

Adjusted soanamorphic sectionfills the 16:9 screen

ANAMORPHICVIDEO

Widescreen images squeezed horizontally into 4:3 NTSC Video, typically from DVDs

4

3


(image distorted horizontally)

(image distorted horizontally)

Displaying Different Video Sources On DifferentAspect Ratio Screens


and at least one LCD projector allow one toeasily switch between aspect ratios. If you aregoing to use one of these projectors, you have achoice of what aspect ratio screen to use in yourhome theater. Most people go with a 16:9screen to display 16:9 material and display 4:3material in the middle of the screen surface (seeour diagram). However, a more elegant solutionis to use a variable aspect ratio screen. Most ofthe major screen manufacturers offer variableaspect ratio screens but they accomplish theswitch by lowering masking panels. Vuteccorporation has a more elegant solution. Theybuild two separate screens into one assembly.This allows the home theater owner to drop thecorrect surface for the software being displayed.This screen, which Vutec calls their Pro-Duplex,lowers both screen surfaces in exactly the sameplane so that focusing adjustments on thedisplay device are unnecessary.

The Future of Widescreen Video

The old proverb "The only thing constant aboutthe world is change" certainly applies to hometheater. It wasn't too many years ago that youcould build a home theater around a 4:3 displaydevice and be perfectly happy. After all, yourtelevision display was 4:3, the software was 4:3,and compatibility was assured. Modern hometheaters, however, have to contend with multipleaspect ratios. As for the future, the big thing nowis digital television (DTV). If you have beenfollowing the tortured progress of DTV , then youknow the situation is still evolving however, ifthere is one feature of DTV (and HDTV) that wecan speak about with some certainty, believe itor not, it is the aspect ratio. Almost all of theprogramming should be in 4:3 and/or 16:9. Thereason that we can state this with somecertainty is that the "Grand Alliance FormatTable", which has become the unofficialguideline for the DTV rollout, only specifiesthose two ratios. Unfortunately, this table, whichwas once a proposed standard has been de-moted to guideline status by the FCC, but, itappears that the broadcasters and equipmentmanufacturers are going to adopt a great deal ofit anyway. Kerns Powers, I think we are going tobe seeing a lot more of your work in the future.

STANDARDVIDEO

A standard 4:3 NTSC video signal generated either by a 4:3 video

camera or by "panning and scanning" a

widescreen film source

4

3

LETTERBOXEDWIDESCREEN VIDEO

A standard 4:3 NTSC video signal with a 1.85 aspect ratio

widescreen video image across the middle

of the frame

3

4

ANAMORPHICWIDESCREEN VIDEO


widescreen video"squeezed" into the frame

3

4

3

4

LETTERBOXEDCINEMASCOPE VIDEO


widescreen video image across the middle

of the frame

ANAMORPHICCINEMASCOPE VIDEO


widescreen video"squeezed" into the frame

3

4

Image has 480 Lines of vertical resolution





Displayed Resolution Of DifferentVideo Signals


The Father Of 16:9

The most prevalent aspect ratios filmmakers deal with today are: 1.33 (The Academy standard aspect ratio),1.67 (The European widescreen aspect ratio), 1.85 (The American widescreen aspect ratio), 2.20(Panavision), and 2.35 (CinemaScope). Attentive videophiles may note that 1.77 (16:9) isn't on this list andmay ask: "If 16:9 isn't a film format, then just exactly where did this ratio come from". The answer to thisquestion is: "Kerns Powers".

The story begins in the early 1980s when the issue of high definition video as a replacement for film in movietheaters first began to arise. During this time, the Society Of Motion Picture And Television Engineers(SMPTE) formed a committee, the Working Group On High-Definition Electronic Production, to look intostandards for this emerging technology. Kerns H. Powers was then research manager for the TelevisionCommunications Division at the David Sarnoff Research Center. As a prominent member of the televisionindustry, he was asked to join the working group, and immediately became embroiled in the issue of aspectratios and HDTV. The problem was simple to define. The film community for decades has been used to theflexibility of many aspect ratios, but the television community had just one. Obviously a compromise wasneeded.

As the story goes, using a pencil and a piece of paper, Powers drew the rectangles of all the popular filmaspect ratios (each normalized for equal area) and dropped them on top of each other. When he finished, hediscovered an amazing thing. Not only did all the rectangles fall within a 1.77 shape, the edges of all therectangles also fell outside an inner rectangle which also had a 1.77 shape. Powers realized that he had themakings of a "Shoot and Protect" scheme that with the proper masks would permit motion pictures to bereleased in any aspect ratio. In 1984, this concept was unanimously accepted by the SMPTE working groupand soon became the standard for HDTV production worldwide.

Ironically, it should be noted, the High-Definition Electronic Production Committee wasn't looking for a displayaspect ratio for HDTV monitors, but that's what the 16:9 ratio is used for today. "It was about the electronicproduction of movies," Kerns Powers states, "that's where the emphasis was". Interestingly, today, there islittle talk today about the extinction of film as a motion picture technology, but there is a lot of talk aboutdelivering HDTV into the home. And, as a testament to Kern H. Powers clever solution, it's all going to be onmonitors with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

1.33 1.67 1.85 2.20 2.35

OUTERRECTANGLE PERIMETER1.77 (16:9)

INNERRECTANGLE

AREA1.77 (16:9)

KERNS POWERS' SOLUTION


INPUTSELECT

MEMORYSELECT

ASPECTSELECT

SETSETTING

INPUTINFO

AUTO WIDE : OFF

ASPECT :NORMAL

FULL

ZOOM

SUBTITLE

WIDE ZOOM

INPUTSELECT

MEMORYSELECT

ASPECTSELECT

SETSETTING

INPUTINFO

AUTO WIDE : OFF

ASPECT :NORMAL

FULL

ZOOM

SUBTITLE

WIDE ZOOM

INPUTSELECT

MEMORYSELECT

ASPECTSELECT

SETSETTING

INPUTINFO

AUTO WIDE : OFF

ASPECT :NORMAL

FULL

ZOOM

SUBTITLE

WIDE ZOOM

INPUTSELECT

MEMORYSELECT

ASPECTSELECT

SETSETTING

INPUTINFO

AUTO WIDE : OFF

ASPECT :NORMAL

FULL

ZOOM

SUBTITLE

WIDE ZOOM

INPUTSELECT

MEMORYSELECT

ASPECTSELECT

SETSETTING

INPUTINFO

AUTO WIDE : OFF

ASPECT :NORMAL

FULL

ZOOM

SUBTITLE

WIDE ZOOM

NORMAL MODE: Picture is displayed with

the normal 4:3 aspect ratio

FULL MODE: Picture is enlarged horizontally, this mode can be used

to expand anamorphically compressed DVDs

ZOOM MODE: The picture is enlarged both horizontally

and vertically (some picture is lost vertically)

SUBTITLE MODE: The picture is enlarged horizontally and

vertically but subtitles are left on the screen

WIDE ZOOM MODE: The picture is expanded horizontally, but more on the outside edges

than at the center

USING THE DIFFERENTPICTURE MODES IN THE SONYVPL-W400Q LCD PROJECTOR

ON A 16:9 SCREEN


(IMAGE)

(IMAGE)

FILM PROJECTORZOOM LENS

COMMERCIAL THEATER PROJECTION SCREEN

FILMSTRIP

(IMAGE)

PROJECTIONPICTURE TUBE

LENS (X3)HOME THEATER 16:9 PROJECTION SCREENFRONT PROJECTOR

PICTURE TUBE (X3)

4:3 Image Projects Onto Middle Of Screen

4:3 Image

4:3 Image Projects Onto Middle Of Screen

4:3 Image

(IMAGE)

HOW COMMERCIAL THEATERS AND WIDESCREEN TELEVISIONS HANDLE 4:3 SOURCES

MotorizedScreen MaskingCurtins

BlankedAreas


(IMAGE)

(IMAGE)

FILM PROJECTORZOOM LENS

COMMERCIAL THEATER PROJECTION SCREEN

FILMSTRIP

(IMAGE)


LENS (X3)HOME THEATER 16:9 PROJECTION SCREEN

FRONT PROJECTORPICTURE TUBE (X3)

Widescreen Image Fills Screen

Widescreen Image With Matting

Letterbox Image

(IMAGE)

Letterbox Image Fills Screen

HOW COMMERCIAL THEATERS AND WIDESCREEN TELEVISIONS HANDLE WIDESCREEN SOURCES


(IMAGE)

(IMAGE)

FILM PROJECTOR

ANAMORPHIC LENS COMMERCIAL THEATER PROJECTION SCREEN

FILMSTRIP

(IMAGE)


LENS (X3) HOME THEATER 16:9 PROJECTION SCREENFRONT PROJECTOR

PICTURE TUBE (X3)

Anamorphic Image Fills Screen

Squeezed Anamorphic ImageFills Entire Film Image Area

Anamorphic Image, (Unsqueezed Electronically)

(IMAGE)

Anamorphic Image Fills Screen

HOW COMMERCIAL THEATERS AND WIDESCREEN TELEVISIONS HANDLE ANAMORPHIC SOURCES


VUTEC

A

B

C

D

E

Variable aspect ratio screen systems are a convenient way toadd professional looking screen masking to home theaterrooms. Each of the products we describe here are available inmany sizes and configurations. This page is simply to illustratethe four basic systems that you can chose from. Call us forfurther details and pricing.

A) Stretched Flat Screen with Motorized Left and RightMasking Panel AssemblyOffered as DRAPER Eclipse H™ and STEWART Electrimask-Screenwall™ systems. These masking systems consist of afixed frame assembly that mounts over a stretched flat screen.It has motorized panels that lower on the left and right sideschanging a 16:9 screen to a 4:3.

B) Stretched Flat Screen with Motorized Top and BottomMasking Panel AssemblyOffered as DRAPER Eclipse V™ and STEWART Electrimask-Screenwall™ systems. These masking systems consist of afixed frame assembly that mounts over a stretched flat screen.It has motorized panels that lower on the top and raise on thebottom changing a 4:3 screen to a 16:9.

C) Electric Roll-Down Screen with Motorized Left and RightMasking PanelsOffered as DA-LITE Dual Masking Electrol™ and STEWARTElectrimask-Electriscreen™ systems. These masking systemsconsist of a regular rolldown screen assembly with left and rightmasking panels built into the same housing. When loweredthey convert a 16:9 screen into a 4:3.

D) Dual Aspect Ratio Screen AssemblyOffered as VUTEC Vu-Flex Pro Duplex™. This system consistsof two separate screen 16:9 and 4:3) surfaces housed in thesame assembly. One surface is used at a time and both rolldown in the same plane so image focus is constant.

E) Dual Aspect Ratio Screen AssemblyOffered as Da-Lite Horizon Electrol™. This system consists ofone screen surface (4:3) and one upper masking panel. The4:3 surface is lowered for 4:3 sources and when 16:9 sourcesare viewed, the 4:3 screen moves up several inches and theblack upper masking panel rolls down. The result is a 16:9viewing surface.

Variable AspectRatio Masking

Systems


Not long ago, all CRT-based front projectionmonitors had analog-controlled convergencesystems. This meant that the color registration ofthe three projection tubes was controlled by acomplex bank of waveform pots driving analogconvergence circuitry. These analog systemsworked well enough but suffered from a significantlimitation; most allowed registration alignment forone aspect ratio only. Today, CRT projectors aremore advanced and most offer digital convergencesystems which allow for easy switching of imageaspect ratios. The result of this advancement,though, is that those that are building a hometheater with a front projector have to give someserious though as to what aspect ratio switching

philosophy to follow; constant height or constantwidth.

The Constant Height Method: This method keepsthe height of the two different projection screens thesame. This method works well enough, as far asswitching aspect ratios is concerned, but may leadto uneven phosphor utilization. See our diagrambelow.

The Constant Width Method: This method keepsthe width of the two different projection screens thesame. Many manufacturers prefer this methodbecause it utilizes the full area of the 4:3 phosphortarget in the projection tube. See our diagram

VUTECVUTEC

16:9 SCREEN

Image on Picture Tube Phosphor:

Vu-Flex Pro Duplex/ Vision 2X ScreenContant Height Design

4:3 image is smaller than phosphor

4:3 SCREEN

16:9 image fills width of phosphor

VUTECVUTEC

4:3 SCREEN

16:9 SCREEN

Image on Picture Tube Phosphor:

Vu-Flex Pro Duplex/ Vision 2X ScreenContant Width Design

4:3 image fillsthe phosphor

16:9 image fills width of phosphor

Variable Aspect Ratio Screens: what’s more important,constant height or constant width ?

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