Letter box in an 16:9 ratio??

[Anonymous]

I was watching on my HDTV a program that had letter box withing the already 16:9 ratio. What’s that about?

[birdcat]

Was it created in 2.35:1?

[Rob]

hmm…is your TV set to stretch 4:3 images to 16:9? Cause letterbox is really 4:3

[XTR-91]

Was it footage originally shot in 4:3 and converted to 16:9, with the conversion method of adding black bars to the sides? The other options for converting between aspect ratios are cropping or stretching .

[Anonymous]

I just bought an HDTV for the first time in my life and thought that the only reason for the letter box was the 16:9 had to fit in 4:3 window. Now, I’m looking at a 16:9 ratio screen. So why would the movie have a letter box.

[XTR-91]

If there’s settings on your HDTV that tell it to zoom, crop, or stretch, then you may have problems getting the aspect ratio to dispay correctly. If the original movie was shot in 4:3 (letterbox), then the picture display will be in 4:3. Could you describe your television problem more clearly, such as listing the shape (aspect ratio) of the movie, and posting any custom settings on your HDTV?

[birdcat]

There are several aspect ratios used in video/movie production.

Old standard def is 4:3 (720 X 480). HD is 16:9 (as 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720). Some movies are shot in 2.35:1 which will give you letterboxing when viewed on a 1920 x 1080 set (you would need resolution of 2538 x 1080).

[composite1]

After having some films shot in 16×9 exhibited on 4×3 screens (ewww!) we started throwing a letterbox on our films so they would look okay no matter what ratio they were shown at. I worked with a NatGeo crew shooting 1080i but framed everything for 4×3 so it would look fine at SD and on widescreen.

[Author]

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