Widescreen 3.0: The 16x9 Myth
When you sit down in front of a modern, flat-panel 4K television, it feels massive. It's wide, it's sleek, and it looks like a movie screen. Because of this, a modern myth was born: "I bought a widescreen TV, so movies should fill the whole screen without any black bars."
Unfortunately, that is a misconception. To understand why, you have to remember our core motto:
Your flat-screen TV is shaped to a ratio of 1.78:1 (or 16x9). This is the standard shape for modern broadcast television, sitcoms, and sports. However, the majority of cinematic blockbusters, epics, and action films are shot in "Scope"—a much wider ratio of 2.39:1.
The Window vs. The Painting
Think of your 16x9 television as a window, and the 2.39:1 movie as a panoramic painting. The painting doesn't change shape just because your window is a specific size. To see the entire painting through your window, you have to step back. This creates empty space at the top and bottom (the black bars).
If a streaming service decides to force the painting to fill the entire window so there are "no black bars," they have to digitally zoom in. When they do this, nearly 25% of the original theatrical image is cut off the sides and destroyed.
Currently viewing: Full Theatrical Frame (2.39:1). Note the black bars preserving the edges.
Just like the Pan & Scan days of old, this artificial cropping ruins the director's visual composition, creates uncomfortable close-ups, and literally removes elements of the story from your screen. The black bars are not taking anything away; they are the necessary space that holds the complete movie together.
What is Widescreen? (Archival Primer)
This section served as the primary introduction for thousands of users discovering the concept of Original Aspect Ratio (OAR). If you were already familiar with the concepts of widescreen and pan & scan, you likely moved directly to our Advanced Widescreen/OAR Primer.
For historical context on the widescreen basics, the following was the original 2002 primer:
Have you ever wondered while watching a film on TV, VHS, or DVD why it began with this disclaimer?
"This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your screen."
During the era of square (4:3) televisions, that disclaimer essentially meant:
"This film has been reduced in size, and up to 43% of what was shown in the theater has been cut out, just so that the image will fill up your square television screen."
This process of "reformatting" a film was known as "Pan & Scan" or "Full Screen." The terms "Widescreen" or "Letterbox" simply referred to the original, unaltered film as it was shown in the theater.
The following examples illustrate the difference as seen on a traditional television screen. Each comparison used screenshots taken from the same frame of both formats. It is clear how much of the original picture was lost due to the "Pan & Scan" process:
Although the Pan & Scan format appeared larger on small sets, it came at a great cost. In these examples, 43% of the image was discarded. In The Mummy, the result was a missing character and a cramped frame. In The Fifth Element, a breathtaking stage was reduced in scale, and the dynamic feeling of the scene was lost. This was not what the directors intended.
Widescreen Advocate believed that this type of alteration was unacceptable. We campaigned to see all films shot in a widescreen format preserved in their original aspect ratio for their release on DVD and future formats.
So, was that all there was to know?
Actually, no. The explanation above was meant to quickly illustrate the "why" behind the movement. For those interested in the technical specifics, the Advanced Widescreen/OAR Primer provided a deeper dive into anamorphic enhancements and matting techniques.
Historically, we also recommended these foundational educational sites:
Archival Comparison Resources:
Once users learned the truth about widescreen video, they helped spread the word that Wider is Better.
~ See what you've been missing! See it in Widescreen! ~