4:3 16:9 and the other one.

Why oh why did the tech giants need or have to make HD tv AND use 16:9 instead of 4:3? And even that much smaller scale ratio on dvd's?

4:3 was excellent as it filled the whole screen.. with 16:9 you need a widescreen TV or Monitor! Just because someone went and built one, everyone thought it was a great idea and went out and bought one (well, most people did). Let me tell you something... they aren't that much better than 4:3 tv and SD or 720p on PC instead of 1080 HD streaming. Not everyone wants a widescreen TV or has a large screen Monitor! I want my TV/monitor picture to be more square than rectangle... I want it filling the whole screen not 3/4 of it.

JUST LEAVE THINGS ALONE.

All the sheep went out and bought these brand new weidescreen tv's when they aren't any better than 4:3 ratio box tv. And who's idea was it to format dvd's in the narrow-ist ratio? That is just dumb!

please go back to 4:3... I miss it so.

And I forgot to mention that my PC prefers SD 720 as those HD 1080 don't play too well... lots of lagging and I don't want to buy a new PC just yet.

a reply to: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

Not positive, but I think that's what they shoot movies in.
When you got a VHS or DVD, they had to conveert it and you lost the left and right of the film.
Thats why.

movies are shot wider, because in the 50's they wanted to differentiate themselves from television, which was square. back in the day, films were all square like tv.

movies lost a lot of money to tv at first, so they had to do something to bring people into the cinemas, so they went widescreen.

i do not mind any tv format as long as they keep the original aspect ratio in tact. i HATE stretching an image, hate distortion.

a reply to: dantanna

Luckily I've found some sites online which allow me to watch films & tv in 4:3 format.

Do you know that you pay for a 30" x 18" Monitor/TV but in reality 2 inches on top and botom get cut off and are replaced with black lines... so what you thought was an 18" hieight, you get 14" instead.

Widescreen is a better representation of your vision, you see in widescreen hence why they improved TVs with that format.

Get a VCR and get yer groove on.

a reply to: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

This is why 70" SUHD TVs are under $1200 now - even when the image is shrunk, its still huge. Get a massive TV and when its in the widescreen with the "black lines" top & bottom, just pretend thats the size.

I don't ever notice the letterbox effect or whatever its called. Plus, almost everything I watch, on phone, Kindle or big screen, fills the entire screen, edge to edge anyhow.

a reply to: dogstar23

i think my argument is more to do with the PC Monitors than TV actually. Streaming films/tv in 720p 4:3 is much better for me than 1080p wdescreen