Here's a great explanation with an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4oLdlVnNHU Shawn Dowler Information Designer shawn.dowler@gmail.com http://walkingtowel.org On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 22:05, Shawn Dowler wrote: > This page has a lot of information about letterboxing and aspect ratios: > http://widescreen.org/widescreen.shtml > > Start out watching the animation of the television then click around > on the site; there is a lot of material buried there. > > Shawn Dowler > Information Designer > shawn.dowler@gmail.com > http://walkingtowel.org > > > > On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 19:52, Kurt Granroth > wrote: >> On 2/26/10 7:39 PM, Nathan England wrote: >>> I recently bought a so called hi-def tv screen and despite its 1360,768 >>> 780p resolution my movies still have the black borders! What gives? I >>> thought having a hi-def wide screen would fix the black borders issue. >>> If I hook up a hdmi connection to a new dvd player, is it still going to >>> have the annoying black borders? Funny when we were all full screen we >>> wanted to be widescreen, now we are widescreen and we want to have a >>> fullscreen! >> >> Ah, but "wide screen" is all in the eye of the beholder.  HDTVs are >> called wide screen because they have a 16:9 aspect ratio as compared to >> the 4:3 aspect ratio of previous screens.  But 16:9 isn't the only wide >> aspect ratios out there.  In fact, pretty much all movies are shot in >> 1.85:1 or 2.39:1.  That's why you still have the black bars, even on >> your HDTV -- they may be wider than your older TV but they still aren't >> as wide as a movie screen. >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss