Fullscreen (aspect ratio)

Last updated November 05, 2024

The aspect ratio of 4:3 Aspect-ratio-4x3.svg — The aspect ratio of 4:3

Fullscreen (or full screen) refers to the 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio of early standard television screens and computer monitors.^[1] Widescreen ratios started to become more popular in the 1990s and 2000s.

Film originally created in the 4:3 aspect ratio does not need to be altered for full-screen release. In contrast, other aspect ratios can be converted to full screen using techniques such as pan and scan, open matte or reframing. In pan and scan, the 4:3 image is extracted from within the original frame by cropping the sides of the film. In open matte, the 4:3 image is extracted from parts of the original negative which were shot but not intended to be used for the theatrical release. In reframing, elements within the image are repositioned. Reframing is used for entirely CG movies, where the elements can be easily moved.^[2]^[3]

History

Full-screen aspect ratios in standard television have been in use since the invention of moving picture cameras. Early computer monitors employed the same aspect ratio. The aspect ratio 4:3 was used for 35 mm films in the silent era. It is also very close to the 1.375:1 Academy ratio, defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a standard after the advent of optical sound-on-film. By having TV match this aspect ratio, movies originally photographed on 35 mm film could be satisfactorily viewed on TV in the early days of television (i.e. the 1940s and the 1950s). When cinema attendance dropped, Hollywood created widescreen aspect ratios (such as 1.85:1) in order to differentiate the film industry from TV.^[4] However, at the turn of the 21st century, broadcasters worldwide began phasing out the 4:3 standard entirely and manufacturers started to favor the 16:9 aspect ratio for modern high-definition television sets, broadcast cameras and computer monitors.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer monitor</span> Computer output device

A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.

Letter-boxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting video-graphic image has mattes of empty space above and below it; these mattes are part of each frame of the video signal.

Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown in fullscreen proportions of a standard-definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects.

Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than 4:3 (1.33:1).

35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width of the 35 mm format photographic film, which consists of strips 1.377 ± 0.001 inches (34.976 ± 0.025 mm) wide. The standard image exposure length on 35 mm for movies is four perforations per frame along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film.

Anamorphic widescreen is a process by which a widescreen image is horizontally compressed to fit into a storage medium with a narrower aspect ratio, reducing the horizontal resolution of the image while keeping its full original vertical resolution. Compatible play-back equipment can then expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen image. This is typically used to allow one to store widescreen images on a medium that was originally intended for a narrower ratio, while using as much of the frame – and therefore recording as much detail – as possible.

16:9 is a widescreen aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9 units.

High-definition video is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for high-definition, generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines or 576 vertical lines (Europe) is considered high-definition. 480 scan lines is generally the minimum even though the majority of systems greatly exceed that. Images of standard resolution captured at rates faster than normal, by a high-speed camera may be considered high-definition in some contexts. Some television series shot on high-definition video are made to look as if they have been shot on film, a technique which is often known as filmizing.

14:9 is a compromise aspect ratio between 4:3 and 16:9. It is used to create an acceptable picture on both 4:3 and 16:9 TV, conceived following audience tests conducted by the BBC. It has been used by most UK, Irish, French, Spanish, Colombian and Australian terrestrial analogue networks, and in the US on Warner Bros. Discovery' HD simulcast channels with programming and advertising originally compiled in 4:3. Note that 14:9 is not a shooting format; 14:9 material is almost always derived from either a 16:9 or 4:3 shot.

1080p is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vertically; the p stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The term usually assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a resolution of 2.1 megapixels. It is often marketed as Full HD or FHD, to contrast 1080p with 720p resolution screens. Although 1080p is sometimes referred to as 2K resolution, other sources differentiate between 1080p and (true) 2K resolution.

Open matte is a filming technique that involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the movie projector for the widescreen theatrical release and then scanning the film without a matte for a full screen home video release. It is roughly equivalent to an uncropped version of the film.

Super 35 is a motion picture film format that uses exactly the same film stock as standard 35 mm film, but puts a larger image frame on that stock by using the space normally reserved for the optical analog sound track.

Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image. In this case, the matte is the background painting. In film and stage, mattes can be physically huge sections of painted canvas, portraying large scenic expanses of landscapes.

Univisium is a proposed universal film format created by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC and his son, Fabrizio, to unify all future theatrical and television films into one respective aspect ratio of 2:1.

The pillarbox effect occurs in widescreen video displays when black bars are placed on the sides of the image. It becomes necessary when film or video that was not originally designed for widescreen is shown on a widescreen display, or a narrower widescreen image is displayed within a wider aspect ratio, such as a 16:9 image in a 2.39:1 frame. The original material is shrunk and placed in the middle of the widescreen frame.

The technology of television has evolved since its early days using a mechanical system invented by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow in 1884. Every television system works on the scanning principle first implemented in the rotating disk scanner of Nipkow. This turns a two-dimensional image into a time series of signals that represent the brightness and color of each resolvable element of the picture. By repeating a two-dimensional image quickly enough, the impression of motion can be transmitted as well. For the receiving apparatus to reconstruct the image, synchronization information is included in the signal to allow proper placement of each line within the image and to identify when a complete image has been transmitted and a new image is to follow.

The display aspect ratio (DAR) is the aspect ratio of a display device and so the proportional relationship between the physical width and the height of the display. It is expressed as two numbers separated by a colon (x:y), where x corresponds to the width and y to the height. Common aspect ratios for displays, past and present, include 5:4, 4:3, 16:10, and 16:9.

The Panasonic AG-DVX100 was a video camera that was released on October 13, 2002. Its 60Hz version was the first consumer digital camcorder capable of recording video at 24 progressive frames per second (FPS). The rate of 24 FPS is the standard for 35 mm sound film.

The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of its width to its height. It is expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, width:height. Common aspect ratios are 1.85:1 and 2.40:1 in cinematography, 4:3 and 16:9 in television, and 3:2 in still photography.

References

↑ Jim Taylor; Mark R. Johnson; Charles G. Crawford (2006). DVD Demystified. McGraw Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-142398-4.
↑ Joey Lott; Robert Reinhardt (11 April 2006). Flash 8 ActionScript Bible. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 789–. ISBN 978-0-471-79271-0.
↑ Chris Jones (20 June 2003). Guerilla Film Makers Movie Blueprint. A&C Black. pp. 517–. ISBN 978-0-8264-1453-3.
↑ Pautz, Michelle C. (2017-12-29). Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywood's Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats. Lexington Books. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4985-3913-5.

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[TaylorJohnson2006-1] Jim Taylor; Mark R. Johnson; Charles G. Crawford (2006). DVD Demystified. McGraw Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-142398-4.

[LottReinhardt2006-2] Joey Lott; Robert Reinhardt (11 April 2006). Flash 8 ActionScript Bible. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 789–. ISBN 978-0-471-79271-0.

[Jones2003-3] Chris Jones (20 June 2003). Guerilla Film Makers Movie Blueprint. A&C Black. pp. 517–. ISBN 978-0-8264-1453-3.

[4] Pautz, Michelle C. (2017-12-29). Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywood's Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats. Lexington Books. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4985-3913-5.

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