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Active image area
(Actual screen area)
As you can see, our screen in this example is a 1.85:1 ratio. The dashed lines show the area that we
'blanked'. If you recall, watching a letterbox movie on a 4:3 screen gave us black bars; therefore with
letterbox movies, we're not losing any information!
The 'other' type of widescreen is called 'ANAMORPHIC'. The image is still a widescreen format, but
instead of 'blanking' the top and bottom, we simply reduce the overall height of the image:
As a result, all objects will be 'short and fat' (like the circle above), right? Well, not if you're using
software that is anamorphic. Most (but not all) DVD movies have an anamorphic option.
Anamorphic material will always produce a better image when using a high quality scaler such as the
VHD Ultra Controller. The reason is that you will actually get more lines of resolution (and ultimately
more detail) when using anamorphic titles. Basically, a TV image is made of 480 lines. When using
LETTERBOX (the drawing at the top of the page), we're 'throwing away' information by blanking the top
and bottom. The end result is that there will only be around 360 lines of information on the screen and
480 with anamorphic.
6-17
Blanked (cut off)
areas
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