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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustard" data-source="post: 338339" data-attributes="member: 46">DVD can be used for any aspect ratio. What aspect ratio you watch something in depends on what the programme or film was made in initially. Films tend to be widescreen. If the programme was made in 4:3 originally, then yes, they should be watched in 4:3, otherwise you are stretching the picture. DVDs can do 16:9 and widescreen as well as 4:3, widescreen being done by using some slight letterboxing (i.e. small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, to ensure that all the width fits on the screen). In the old days of VHS and more out and out 4:3 frames, films on VHS tended to either be full screen (thus missing a lot of the width), or they would be really letterboxed (i.e. huge black bars at the top and bottom of the screen in order to fit all the width on the screen, to the point where the actual film looked shaped like a letterbox rectangle on the screen).With Blu-ray, the footage must be 16:9 at minimum, so putting 4:3 on Blu-ray necessitates pillarboxing on the footage itself in order to stretch it to 16:9. With DVD, 4:3 footage is full screen on a 4:3 TV (using 4:3 frame), and 16:9 footage is full screen on a 4:3 TV (using a 16:9 frame). Films on DVD will use widescreen on a 16:9 frame, and put small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. On bigger TVs, you set the aspect ratio settings to 4:3 for 4:3 footage, and it obviously won't be full screen on a bigger TV.</blockquote>

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