Why are Black Bars Sometimes Still Visible on a 16x9 HDTV?

It must be mentioned that in some cases, when viewing theatrical films in HDTV - you may still see black bars to the top and bottom of a 16x9 image, as some films were and are made in wider ratios than 16x9.

For instance: Original HDTV programming is made in the 16x9 (1.78) as aspect ratio, which fits the dimensions of HDTV's. However, many histrionically films are made in either the 1.85 or 2.35 aspect ratio, which is even wider than the 16x9 (1.78) aspect ratios of HDTV's. Thus, when viewing these films on an HDTV (if presented in their original theatrical aspect ratio) - you will see black bars on your 16x9 screen. However, the bars will be less pronounced than if the same movie was letterboxed on a standard 4x3 set.

The main thing to be worried about is not whether image fills the screen, but that you are seeing everything in the image that was originally filmed.

Being able to view the entire image as originally filmed is surely the more important issue, rather than be anxious about how thick the black bars are, particularly if you are viewing the image on projection screen, which is a large image to start with.

Alternatively, when viewing a standard 4x3 image on a 16x9 set, you will see black or gray bars on the left and right side of the display screen, since there is no information to fill the space. However, you can stretch the image to fill the space, but you will distort the proportions of the 4x3 image in doing so, resulting in objects appearing wider horizontally. Once again, the important issue is that you able to view entire image, not whether the image fills the entire screen.

The way to look at this issue is the TV screen is providing a surface upon which you are to sight images. Depending how the images are formatted, the entire image may or may not fill the entire screen surface. However, the screen surface on a 16x9 Television is able to accommodate more variations in image aspect ratio realistically than the traditional 4x3 analog televisions.

For more specifics on the characteristics of 16x9 screen Television, check out my reference article: Widescreen TV: The 16x9 Factor.

In addition, check out another detailed article, with illustrations, on this topic: Why Don't The Black Bars Go Away? from High Def Digest.