Originally Posted by wagon89
My 2 cents, I paid for the whole TV screen so fill it. Wide screen is cool but it really does not matter which way I watch it.
So even though there is less of the original picture on the screen, it's better because it's bigger?
Movies are filmed in a wider aspect ratio than television. The only way to fill a 4:3 tv screen with an image from a movie that was originally filmed in a wider format is to chop off the sides.
Even on a 16:9 tv, you will still get bars with some movie formats. The widest movie format is 2.35:1, and a 2.35:1 movie shown on a 16:9 screen will still have black bars.
Depending on the theater you go to, they will either have a 2.35:1 screen which gets some of its sides covered with curtains for 16:9 or 1.85:1 movies; or they have a 2.35:1 screen which gets some of its sides covered for a 16:9 or 1.85:1 movie.
TVs don't come with built-in curtains to cover areas of the screen for different formats, so we get the bars.