 
by Maurice Lewis
Before we begin discussing TVs, here's a quick primer on basic terms and info regarding your television, and how these terms are going to relate to viewing films on it. If you ever get lost or confused at any point, take a look at the glossary of terms, which hopefully will re-orient you. There is a lot of mumbo-jumbo when it comes to home theater systems, but a basic understanding of important terms will help you out as you move forward in building your system. Also, it will mean the salesperson at the retail store will not be able to mislead or confuse you by throwing some of these expressions at you.
Here are a few terms to keep in the back of your mind:
Lines of Resolution - The resolution of a television set refers literally to the number of lines that appear vertically on the screen. The more lines, the sharper the picture. The best way to think about this is to think of paintings. Have you ever seen a painting at a museum and the closer you got to it, essentially all you could see was a series of dots? Then, as you backed away, a picture came into view? Well, it would make perfect sense that the more dots there were on the canvas, the sharper the picture would be. The same holds true for lines on a television set. To examine the picture closely is to see nothing more than a series of lines, but backing up a picture comes into view. The more lines, the sharper the picture. Keep this in mind when comparing two similar televisions, the one with the more lines gets the edge.
Aspect Ratios - You're going to hate this one. The more you start examining televisions, DVD players, and the movies themselves, you're going to start hearing a lot about aspect ratios, so you might as well get to understand them now. In simplest terms, the aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of a video picture to the height. The standard in most NTSC television screens is an aspect ratio of 4:3, while the HDTV adheres mostly to a 16:9 standard (television stations broadcast in a 4:3 ratio).
Confused as to how this applies to you and your video component? O.K., relax, take a deep breath and read on.
When cinematographers would film movies, they used to film usually with a specific ratio of width to height, which they refer to as 1.33:1. Don't worry, this isn't a new ratio, it's the same as a 4:3. So, when televisions came along using this same aspect ratio, they began taking business away from movies (not just for that reason, of course). The Motion Picture Association of America felt that since both film and television used the same aspect ratio, there was really no difference in the eyes of consumers between viewing a movie on the screen and at home. Therefore, the MPAA approved the use of different ratios for film, specifically wider ones that took advantage of the film format, in order to reclaim some of the market from televisions.
Nowadays, films are usually made in a 1.85:1 or a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It is for this reason that there are so many formatting issues when it comes to watching movies on television and the advent of the "letterbox" came about. The "letterbox" allows you to watch a widescreen film in its original aspect ratio on your antiquated 4:3 television. If the "letterbox" is not used, in all likelihood, you're going to miss a good deal of the action and the "pan & scan" technique will be employed, in which the film is formatted so that you see only what some fascist dictator out there decided is the important part of each scene. If you truly appreciate movies, then you'll agree that everything that is filmed is important, and you will scoff at the notion of missing any action.
We'll get more into this later, but basically, this should give you a greater understanding of what they mean by "aspect ratios" and how the term applies to you.
Well, now that you understand more about resolution and aspect ratios, you can move forward to decide more carefully what kind of television you wish to get for your home theater system. |
