HD 101: Why there are black bars on HDTVs
 

It never fails, one of the first thing just about every new HDTV owners asks
is; why are there black bars on my new widescreen TV? And this is the reason
why just about every HD discussion forum has a sticked thread at the top of
the forums explaining why this still happens. So in this edition of HD 101, we
figured we'd have our go at trying to give a simple answer to an age old
question. The most basic explanation is because the image you want to watch
isn't the same shape as the your TV. Of course that seems too obvious and now
you're thinking; but why not, they're both widescreen? But rather than getting
into the why are there so many shapes -- called aspect ratios from here on out
-- we'll show you the various formats and the different ways they might be
displayed on your HDTV.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/02/19...bars-on-hdtvs/

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