A Key Decision: 16:9 or 4:3?
Evan Powell, September 30, 2004
ProjectorCentral.com
These days conventional wisdom says that a new home theatre should have a 16:9 projector and a 16:9 screen. That is absolutely right for most people, and clearly the trend is toward the conversion from traditional 4:3 television to 16:9 widescreen theatre. But it may or may not be right for you. There are a number of exceptional 4:3 projectors on the market, and they have unique advantages over the 16:9 models. So which is best for you—4:3 or 16:9? The answer is that it all depends on the trade-offs you want to make, and how you want to manage your home theatre experience. So before you shop for a projector, you need to have an idea of what kind of viewing experience you want to create for different kinds of movies and video. The purpose of this article is to describe your options and help you decide which way to go.
By the way, if you are new to the whole concept, when we talk about 4:3 and 16:9 formats we're talking about the rectangular shape of the video image, or what is called its aspect ratio. Your standard TV has an aspect ratio of 4:3. That means the picture is 4 units wide for every three units of height. Meanwhile, the new HDTV standard is 16:9, which is 16 units of width for every 9 units of height. So HDTV's 16:9 is a rectangle that is, relatively speaking, horizontally wider than regular TV, which by comparison looks almost square.
Here's the problem: any given TV or projector comes in its own native format--typically either 4:3 or 16:9. On the other hand, movies and video come in many different aspect ratio formats. TV programs and videos intended for regular TV are done in 4:3 format, often denoted "1.33" since 4 divided by 3 = 1.33. On the other hand, programs made for HDTV are in 16:9 format, which is 1.78 (16 divided by 9 = 1.78). However, these are not the only two formats that video material comes in. Movies, music videos, and other content on DVD comes in a variety of formats including 1.33, 1.78, 1.85, 2.00, 2.35, 2.4, 2.5, and so on. So there is no universal standard for the rectangular shape of a video picture. But one thing is clear: no matter which format projector you get, either 4:3 or 16:9, it will NOT fit all the video material you will want to watch in its native frame. So since there is no perfect solution, what is the right way to set up your system?
The simple answer is this. As far as projector/screen formats go, there are two "best" ways to set up your home theatre. You can get a native 4:3 projector with a 4:3 screen. Or you can get a native 16:9 projector with a 16:9 screen. Both of these projector/screen combinations have some advantages, and both have limitations for which you must compromise. One is not better than the other—they are just different. So let's take a close look at the advantages of each.
Option #1. Native 16:9 projector with a 16:9 screen
If HDTV and widescreen DVD is your preferred viewing material and you don't care as much about what 4:3 material looks like, your decision is simple. A 16:9 projector on a 16:9 screen is clearly the best combination for optimizing widescreen viewing. The new HDTV programming is all in 16:9, so the image fits the 16:9 screen perfectly, and all is well. The major advantage is that you get the highest resolution possible for widescreen material, and you get that widescreen "theatrical" presentation that is so exciting.
However keep in mind that when it comes to DVD movies there is a formatting problem to consider. Many movies are wider than 16:9. For example, Seabiscuit, The Lord of the Rings, Dances with Wolves, Tombstone, U-571, American Beauty, and Star Wars/Phantom Menace (to name a few) are all 2.35:1, not 1.78:1. So when you display these movies on a 16:9 screen you will have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, each bar amounting to about 12% of the picture height. The bars are not as large as they would be on a 4:3 screen, but they are there nevertheless.
How visible the bars are depends on the black level the projector is capable of, and what type of screen material you are using. Standard white screens will usually make the bars a bit more visible. High contrast gray screens will make them darker. The good news is that with these screen materials and the higher contrast projectors that are available these days, the presence of black bars is much less of a visible distraction than it used to be.
Nevertheless, if you are a perfectionist and money is no object, you may want to consider electric masking to close the frame horizontally when "wider than 16:9" movies are displayed. This is simply an option you order with your screen that features black fabric panels that can be opened or closed along the top and bottom edge of the screen to change the exposed area of the screen's surface. They are used to create a solid black frame around the image no matter what aspect ratio the film is. You will find that the overall quality of the video presentation is improved by placing a black frame around it. This is the ideal solution, and if cost were no option we'd recommend it. But with the new high contrast screens and high contrast projectors, black bars are very black and thus not all that noticeable. So most buyers won't want to pay the significant additional cost for electric masking just to eliminate them.
How do you display 4:3 material on a 16:9 system?
All 16:9 format projectors will display a 4:3 image. However, the major limitation of the 16:9 projector (or any 16:9 video display system) is that, one way or another, 4:3 material tends to be compromised in the way it is displayed. This may or may not be an issue for you, but you need to be clear on your options since there is a LOT of 4:3 video/film material in the world. Standard television of course is 4:3. But so are most older classic movies (Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Mutiny on the Bounty, Citizen Kane, Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Fantasia, etc.). Many music videos are in 4:3 also. A lot of special interest material such as Ken Burns' superb documentaries on the Civil War and the life of Mark Twain are in 4:3. And all of the historic television series being released on DVD, from I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show to Northern Exposure and Friends are all in their original 4:3 format. So how will you display all of this material in your home theatre?
With a 16:9 projector, one option is to display 4:3 material in its correct aspect ratio using the middle two-thirds of the screen. When you do this you will have black pillars or columns on each side of the image that fill the space between the image and the sides of your screen.
Another option, not so appealing, is to use the "expand" feature on the projector which stretches the 4:3 image horizontally so it fills the 16:9 frame. In this mode people will appear fatter. Cars look like low-riders on oval shaped tires. Yes, it fills the 16:9 screen, but the romantic essence of Casablanca, a 4:3 film, is somewhat compromised when you make Bogart and Bergman look like they've spent the war years gorging on French cheese and pate. To anyone serious about seeing a classic film the way the director created it, this tasteless distortion of the 4:3 image (a "featured option" of all 16:9 video display devices) will be unacceptable.
A third option widely available on 16:9 projectors, is to "zoom" the 4:3 image instead of stretching it. This basically cuts off the top and bottom of the image and displays the middle section of the image in full frame 16:9. So with facial close-ups for example, you lose the top of the head and chin of the subject, retaining just the eyes, nose, and mouth. In general you are often aware that vital portions of the image are lost. Your owner's manual will call it "zoom", but it should be called the "4:3 butchering option." It should not be used if you have any desire to see something like Citizen Kane in the way it was originally intended to be seen.
Many of the newer 16:9 projectors have come up with a solution for 4:3 material that fills the 16:9 frame with the least amount of distortion. They will retain the original aspect ratio of the center portion of a 4:3 picture while stretching the side portions out to fit the 16:9 frame. This is probably the least offensive way to get the framed filled. It is certainly a workable solution for regular cable or broadcast television since the edges of the image don't usually contain vital subject matter. Therefore distorting the outside edges is a reasonable compromise. However, for the viewing of artistic classic films, centering the image in the 16:9 frame with pillars on each side is the only real way to view the material as it was created by the director.
The bottom line is this. A 16:9 format projector is ideal for HDTV and widescreen DVD. But it leaves you with top and bottom black bars on movies that are wider than 16:9, and it requires you to make some compromises with 4:3 material. For many home theatre enthusiasts, the visual impact of 16:9 widescreen excitement outweighs issues related to 4:3 display. Nevertheless, if you are concerned about having the most dramatic 4:3 display and you don't want to compromise it in any of the ways noted above, you might choose to go with a 4:3 format projector instead.
Option #2: Native 4:3 projector with a 4:3 screen
At first the idea of choosing a 4:3 projector with a 4:3 screen sounds a bit old-fashion. After all, 16:9 is the future, right? Why would anyone go this route? Well, there are a few good reasons. If you want to view material such as classic films, or music videos like the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over, or an IMAX special like Everest in very large dramatic format, the 4:3 set-up lets you do this in a way a 16:9 system does not. Furthermore, all native 4:3 projectors these days can display 16:9 material also. There are compromises, certainly, but the compromises are different; at no time will you ever need to consider distorting or chopping off a widescreen picture to get it to fit the frame.
When you have a 4:3 projector, you will want to set it up so that it displays a full 4:3 image on a matching 4:3 format screen. Meanwhile, when you feed the projector a 16:9 signal, it will be displayed using 75% of the native 4:3 frame, with black bars at the top and bottom. Those bars will each be 12.5% of the total picture height. However, when you play movies that are wider than 16:9, like Gladiator, Seabiscuit, and Lord of the Rings (all of which are 2.35:1 format), the size of the black bars increases so that the correct cinematic aspect ratio of these films is maintained.
Many folks object to 4:3 format set-ups because they feel the black bars on 2.35:1 films are simply too large relative to the image. One can understand this objection, particularly when you see it on your television in letterbox mode. A 2.35:1 film will be shown with top/bottom black bars that are each about 22% of the picture height. That means 44% of the screen is black. You will recall that such a presentation looks terrible on a television since the image is just way too small compared to what you are used to seeing on that screen. However, on a very large 4:3 screen it doesn't look as bad because the image is still quite large and easy to see.
Why get a 4:3 projector with a 4:3 screen?
It all depends on what you like to watch, and how you like to watch it. The central issue really has to do with your own personal sense of aesthetics—do you believe that "4:3 should be smaller than 16:9?" Do you like the feeling of watching 4:3 television at a certain size, then having the image open up wider to view a widescreen movie? A lot of people would quite understandably say "Yes, of course, isn't that what home theatre is all about?"
Maybe, maybe not. Time to think out of the box here for a moment. You might prefer a big 4:3 screen rather than 16:9. Here's why. You will certainly want to watch widescreen movies in their widescreen dramatic format, no doubt about it. But you can install a 4:3 screen that is wide enough to give you the 16:9 display you want. For example, if you want an 8-foot wide 16:9 image, you can get a screen that is 8 feet wide and six feet high. You might even consider putting electric masking on it, because with a 4:3 set-up the benefits of masking are more substantial since black bars are bigger. Then you could set the masking normally to its 16:9 position. Now it looks like you have a widescreen theatre. With this rig, nobody would ever know you had a 4:3 screen on the wall unless you opened the masking. And if you put on a super-widescreen film like Gladiator you can close the masking a little to maintain a solid black frame around the image. And you can do this no matter what the aspect ratio of the movie happens to be.
Now let's say you change your viewing material. You want to watch Casablanca. But more than that you want to see Casablanca just like it was originally presented in commercial movie theatres in 1942, which was in large screen 4:3 format. The way you have it set up, you've got a great big 4:3 screen hidden behind the masks. So you can press a button, open the masks and view Casablanca in its original large screen 4:3 theatrical presentation, rather than centering it on your 16:9 screen with black pillars on the sides.
Music videos are the same way—many of them are 4:3, such as the classic Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over," and the recently released Crosby, Stills & Nash "Acoustic Concert" (a great DVD and a beautiful performance not to be missed by Crosby, Stills, and Nash fans.) Big music demands big video. On a 120" 4:3 diagonal screen you feel like you are in the front row at the Eagles' concert. Conversely, when this 4:3 image is squeezed into the middle of a 16:9 screen, the Eagles look like they are on television. The difference in the viewing experience is dramatic.
This scenario has been presented not as a recommendation, but to get you to consider an option that might not otherwise be obvious. And clearly there are other related issues. Electric masks may add too much stress to your budget. Though electric masks are the ultimate solution in a 4:3 theatre, as noted above they are not as necessary as they once were. A good high contrast screen and projector combo will render those top/bottom bars fairly black. Whether you want to spend the extra money for the masking system is optional based on your tastes and budget. (Talk to your projector dealer about screen masking options and prices).
Another important issue is resolution and overall image quality. Today's 16:9 format projectors are made for home theatre. That means they tend to have better video processing and better feature sets for home theatre use than most of the 4:3 format projectors out there. Many of the home theatre projectors are either 1280x720 resolution, or 854x480 resolution, both of which are uniquely suited to high quality widescreen video display. Meanwhile standard 4:3 products come typically in either 800x600 or 1024x768, both of which require horizontal and vertical scaling of all video sources. A year or two ago the industry had not yet produced the array of reasonably priced, high quality 16:9 machines that we see today. Nevertheless, there are some great 4:3 video projectors on the market, some made specifically for home theatre. NEC's HT1100 is native 4:3, and the InFocus Screenplay 4805 can be operated in native 4:3 mode as well. However, the clear trend in the industry is toward the 16:9 alternative.
A third issue to be aware of is that the quality of standard broadcast television in 4:3 format does not lend itself to huge expansion on the big screen. If you are interested in high quality 4:3 from DVD classic movies, specials, music videos, and so forth, that is one thing. But if you are just thinking about the 6 o'clock news or late night reruns of Green Acres, that is quite another. Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Eva Gabor do not benefit from being blown up to major proportions, and you are better off putting them in the middle of a 16:9 screen rather than going full frame on a large 4:3 screen. This is pretty much true of all standard broadcast material.
Conclusion
When shopping for a projector, many people start by reading reviews. Reviews are a great way to get other people's opinions on products you might be considering. But projector reviews should be consulted only after you have decided on the type of projector that you want. It makes no difference if the new SuperGlitzo Plus is the best and cheapest projector ever made—if it is not the right aspect ratio for your theatre, it is the wrong projector for you.
So ignore specs and reviews for the moment. Instead, start by visualizing how you want 4:3 and 16:9 pictures to appear in your viewing space. You are the director in your own home theatre. Think about each type of video/film you want to watch—standard TV, HDTV, music videos, video games, widescreen feature films, classic 4:3 films, etc. Decide how you want to see them appear on your wall. You can then make a well-informed decision on the format that is best for you. Once you have decided that you want either a 16:9 or 4:3 format theatre, you can then start shopping for your projector.
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16:9 or 4:3?