[Fwd: 16:9 Aspect Ratio]

[Brian Vita]

>>Who decided that the world would enjoy
16:9 aspect ratio and widescreen TV receivers?<<

>16:9 happens to be the same aspect ratio as a widescreen motion picture
(i.e., CinemaScope or PanaVision).

Aha! Finally a question where I'm the expert!

Cinema people don't refer to the picture aspect ratios in the same terms as
TV folk.  For example, we call the 4:3 ratio 1.33:1.  We call "widescreen"
(currently the flat non-anamorphic format) 1.85: and CinemaScope is actually
2.35:1.

The "widescreen" HDTV format of 16:9 would thus translate to 1.77:1.  This
is NOT the CinemaScope format.  It is slightly squarer than the standard
"flat" 1.85:1 ratio.  This would mean that most movies that are shot "flat"
would crop nicely to the HDTV 16:9 format.  Cinemascope (and its variations)
would still be letterboxed.

As a side note, CinemaScope was originally a trademark of 20th Century Fox.
When the other studios wanted to do a wide screen anamorphic process they
had to come up with their own name and "squeeze"ratio.  This created a major
problem as you now had to have a set of lenses for each studio.  There were
variable lenses with swivel prisms that could adjust the squeeze ratio but
these ate light incredibly.  The industry finally standardized on the 2.35:1

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