Home cinema aspect ratios
What shape screen should I go for - 16:9 or Cinemascope?
Regular TV comes in 16:9 aspect - the shape of every modern TV screen.
Epic ‘blockbuster’ films and quite a few streaming series are made in Cinemascope or ‘letterbox’ format - nowadays that’s a 2.40:1 ratio, or historically 2.35:1.
With projectors, you can go either way, so what’s best?
1. 16:9 Aspect
For:
Easier and cheaper
Almost all projectors in the home cinema market are natively 16:9, so combining with a 16:9 screen is pretty much plug and play. You don't need a motorised lens, external lens, or native Cinemascope projector, so you'll probably spend less.
More flexible and versatile
If the room is for a mix of TV, gaming, sport, and film, then 16:9 shape will give you what you want, more of the time. We also have the ‘right’ horizontal viewing angle all the time, so whatever you’re watching will always fill your field of view.
Against:
Sightlines are tricky
When creating two or three seating rows, the taller 16:9 shape means either
- you need to build a higher stage, or
- the screen has to go higher up the wall, or
- you can’t go as big as you would like.
So things could end up less comfortable to watch, less immersive, or both.
Not as magical
When you're watching Cinemascope content, the black bars above and below are always there, which spoils the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’. It can feel more like you're watching a massive TV, than being right there in the action.
2. Cinemascope
CinemaScope became popular in the 1950s,
like this example from the film High and Mighty
For:
Totally immersive for films
With the film content going right up to the black velvet border, watching Cinemascope films on a Cinemascope screen draws you right into the action, without any distractions. That means a deeper, more memorable, magical experience.
Cinemascope aspect really suits more dramatic, wide-angle, ‘vista’ scenes and filmography - which can really take you away into another world.
Seating rows and sightlines work better
At the same screen width, a Cinemascope screen is about 1/3 less tall - it's easier to organise rows of seats that give everyone a great view. Risers don’t need to be so tall, the screen doesn't end up too high on the wall, and you can have larger screens - so it's more comfortable and more enjoyable.
Unique and special
Everyone has a fairly large TV shaped screen at home, and hardly anyone has Cinemascope. If you like showing off (and, let's be honest, we all do a bit), Cinemascope is something your friends and neighbours probably don’t have.
Against:
16:9 content can end up too small
Recently I changed the design quite late-on from Cinemascope to 16:9, when I learned my client had a huge love for Formula 1 at the weekends. Looking at the screen maths, the Grand Prix would be too small and less impressive on the scope screen.
After some showroom demonstrations back and forth, we agreed that a compromise for films was best for this client and their tastes.
A little more complication
Some projectors have a fixed lens, so you need to stretch the picture into cinemascope with a specialist lens in front. That in turn introduces slight geometry distortion, which ideally needs a video processor to correct. It’s worth doing, but adds cost.
Other projectors have a built-in motorised zoom lens to deliver Cinemascope. Then you sacrifice about a third of the projector's brightness - so we have to factor that into our brightness calculations.
Finally, some projectors are in native Cinemascope aspect, which is pretty much perfect, but costs a bit more.
Barco's HODR® in native Cinemascope - perfect geometry without a motorised or external lens
The room matters
The final piece of the puzzle is the room you have.
If your space is quite narrow, or if ceilings are tall, you may find it's better to have a big 16:9 screen, than a Cinemascope which would then be too small for 16:9 content.
Conversely, wide rooms often suit wider screens, so Cinemascope could be better.
We need to know:
- What are you like?
- What do you like?
- What size and shape is your room?
- How many people are we optimising for?
And then between us we can answer it - perfectly for you.
Other screen aspects
There’s more!
My favourite film is ‘Back to the Future’ because I saw it at the cinema when I was 11.
From the showroom launch party in 2022 - photography by Ed Felton
Back to the Future, and lots of other films, are in 1.85:1 aspect - this aspect suits films that are more story-led. Watching on a TV or 16:9 projector, you'd see narrow black bars above and below.
IMAX often uses 1.9:1, and 2.0:1 is popular in streaming and some modern films - for example Stranger Things is in 2.0:1.
It takes 2.0, baby
There's a new option that's becoming popular lately.
It's ideal if you love 'film content' and 'TV content' equally, because you get the right size either way.
It goes like this:
First, we want a screen in 2.0 aspect - not just for Stranger Things, but because it's a perfect balance between the two most popular ratios.
We then need a great video processor - Lumagen and MadVR are the market leaders, both very capable.
Finally, we set the processor up to automatically map the various aspects onto the screen.
Purists might say, it's best to keep the exact shape of what you're watching, so you'd see narrow horizontal bars in scope, or narrow side bars in 16:9, like this:
If you're less purist about it, and would rather go large, there's another way - we can tell the video processor to stretch the picture, and completely fill the screen. The 'black bars' area is narrow with either aspect, so the shapes don't change very much.
Even better, great video processors can non-linear stretch very effectively - they do least in the middle where the action is, and stretch subtly to fill out the edges.
I might do this for football, or other less-critical content, but it's up to you.
I really like the 2.0 approach. You'll never feel short-changed - it's always a great size, and really impressive. Sit back, and enjoy the bigger picture.
Another really good, no-compromise solution is screen masking.
What is screen masking?
You might remember from the big cinema, especially years ago - after adverts and trailers, the screen gets wider, then they show the film.
You can have a Cinemascope screen with a moving black border at the sides, or a 16:9 screen with moving borders at top and bottom. Either of those is called ‘2-way masking’.
You also get ‘4-way masking’ where all four sides can move. That gets a bit more expensive - and it's worth it for a high-level system.
Screen masking shows every aspect at its best, without changing the shape the creator wanted you to see. The best masking screens have multiple stop points, so you can watch whatever you like, with zero compromise.
Let’s talk about the perfect screen shape (and size) for you.
Get in touch, tell us about your project, and we’d love to help.
