Aspect Ratios: What You Should Know

Thank you for all the positive feedback regarding my last blog entry titled, 'HDTV Captioning: What You Should Know'. As a result, here's another 'What You Should Know' column.

The reason why I'm writing this is in response to several complaints among some deaf people regarding subtitle issues while watching movies on their DVD players. There are a lot of people out there who dislike watching movies where black bars are present. I prefer watching movies in their original aspect ratio; which mean black bars will be displayed quite often.

Before the fifties, movies were often filmed and projected in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is what most television sets are set at. Though that is changing, as there's a lot of widescreen television sets on the market. They are already mainstreamed as of a few years ago. Most widescreen TV displays are set at around 1.78:1. Many television programs today are filmed in 1.78:1.

Then when the television sets were starting to become popular in households, the theatre owners started to see a decline in audience attendance. So they came up with a new aspect ratio and convinced people that the wider the movie, the better. In fact, many film lovers including myself agree with the philosophy. An aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 give the movie a much more cinematic look to it compared to 1.33:1.

Anyway, the problem with subtitles is that they are images, not text. So when you turn them on, they are locked into their place all through the movie. You cannot move it or adjust the size of the subtitles. It doesn't help especially when most television sets already over scan the pictures to start with.

What is an overscan?

There are a few types of overscan. There are two common overscan types starting with optical overscan and digital zoom. Optical overscan is when the TV showing less of the picture rather than the whole picture. Most of the times, it's just mostly borders with a little of the actual image cut off. Digital zoom, it's when the image is scaled or zoomed so it will be larger than the visible area. If your television set does that, you cannot disable it so you may face some problems with subtitles. Usually, it's the super-cheap television sets the deaf consumers should think twice before buying. There are some affordable television sets that won't overscan enough to crop the subtitles, but you should at least do research before buying a television set.

A lot of people make a habit out of zooming into their movies to get rid of the black bars. What will happen is that the subtitles will be cropped out of the display area. Not only to mention that it will decrease the picture quality of the movie. If you have a standard television (1.33:1) and prefer to watch movie in full frame meaning no black bars, you should buy DVDs that are marked 'Full Screen' or 'Full Frame', or where it says 1.33:1 or 1.33. Avoid any DVDs marked 'Widescreen' or the aspect ratios, 1.78:1, 2.35:1 or 2.40:1. If you have a widescreen display and still don't want black bars, avoid any DVDs that are in 1.33:1 or 2.35:1 and 2.40:1. Stick to either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1.

I do have some good news for the Blu-ray owners who prefer to fill up the screen by eliminating the black bars. Sony will be implementing a new feature onto future titles. The new feature will allow us to re-position the subtitles after the black bars are eliminated. Mainly, it is for projectors that are set to project 2.35:1 which result in eliminating the black bars, so will be the subtitles. This won't be possible on the DVD players, they lack the technology needed to use it.

I made some graphic examples for people who want to learn more about the aspect ratios used.

The three examples below, the screen size represents the standard televisions (4:3, Full Frame), the most common screen size used in North America. In each example, the aspect ratio is displayed and named. The black area represent the whole aspect ratio used within a 4:3 television set. The area labelled ‘Black Bars’ is unused area. A lot of people find the black bars to be an annoyance because they believe they are seeing less of the movie, which they are not. It's the other way around; they are getting the whole movie in its full glory.


The three examples below, the screen size represents the widescreen televisions (16:9 or 1.78:1), a mainstreamed screen size used in North America. In each example, the aspect ratio is displayed and named. The black area represent the whole aspect ratio used within a 16:9 (1.78:1) television set. The area labelled ‘Black Bars’ is unused area. In the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, black bars will appear at the top and bottom. The only aspect ratio that will fill up the whole widescreen display is if the movie is in either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1. The black bars will be displayed when a 1.33:1 (4:3, Full-Frame) movie is displayed, the only difference is that it will appear on the sides instead of the top and bottom.


The bottom line is, the best solution is to avoid using the zoom function if you want the subtitles to stay in the picture.