What does widescreen tv mean

This lets you have a bigger view, but you lose roughly a third of the movie. When showing a full screen format on a widescreen TV, the usual solution is to stretch the frame in order to fit the TV screen. This method introduces a noticeable amount of distortion but is fairly acceptable.

It is now widely accepted that the widescreen format is the better of the two. It lets you watch both TV programs and movies at the largest possible display size. The widescreen format for TVs is only available, though, when you subscribe to a digital transmission format and not via the standard cable or over-the-air transmissions. Widescreen uses an aspect ratio of while full screen uses an aspect ratio of Widescreen is better for viewing movies than full screen.

Widescreen movies can still be played in full screen TVs and vice versa. Mark US English. Daniel British. Libby British. Mia British. Karen Australian. Hayley Australian. Natasha Australian. Veena Indian. Priya Indian. Neerja Indian. Zira US English. Oliver British. They can also set this to automatic so that the receiver will detect the incoming signals and, accordingly, display the picture in either the or the format.

Pictures in the format can be zoomed to fit the widescreen TV, although this may cause some amount of distortion. Sonal Panse. Please enter the following code:. Login: Forgot password? This understanding of aspect ratios is probably more useful when it comes to talking about the movies that come on Blu-ray players and DVDs.

We can use it to understand how it affects what we see on screen. You can find more about this in my article on the aspect ratio of DVD and Blu-ray movies. Search for: Search Button. Paul started the Home Cinema Guide to help less-experienced users get the most out of today's audio-visual technology.

He has worked as a sound, lighting and audio-visual engineer for around 20 years. At home, he has spent more time than is probably healthy installing, configuring, testing, de-rigging, fixing, tweaking, re-installing again and sometimes using various pieces of hi-fi and home cinema equipment.