Tuesday, 12 August 2014

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio describes the dimensions of video screens & video picture elements. All popular video formats are rectilinear, & so can be described by a ratio between width & height. The screen aspect ratio of a traditional tv screen is four:3, or about one.33:1. High definition televisions use a facet ratio of 16:9, or about one.78:1. The aspect ratio of a full 35 mm film frame with soundtrack (also known as the Academy ratio) is one.375:1.

Ratios where height is taller than width are unusual in general everyday use, but are used in computer systems where some applications are better suited for a vertical layout. The most common tall aspect ratio of three:4 is known as portrait mode & is created by physically rotating the display tool 90 degrees from the normal position. Other tall aspect ratios such as 9:16 are technically feasible but seldom used. (For a detailed discussion of this topic, see page orientation.)

Pixels on computer monitors are usually square, but pixels used in digital video often have non-square aspect ratios, such as those used in the PAL & NTSC variants of the CCIR 601 digital video standard, & the corresponding anamorphic widescreen formats. Therefore, a 720 by 480 pixel NTSC DV picture displayes with the four:3 aspect ratio (the traditional tv standard) if the pixels are narrow, & displays at the 16:9 aspect ratio (the anamorphic widescreen format) if the pixels are fat.

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