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 in Cinemascope or ‘letterbox’ format - nowadays that’s a 2.40:1 ratio, or historically 2.35:1.
With projectors, you could 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.
Sightlines work better
At the same screen width, a Cinemascope screen is about 1/3 less tall, so it’s easier to organise seating rows so that everyone gets a great view. Stages don’t need to be so tall, and the screen doesn’t end up too far up the wall - for tiered cinemas, Cinemascope is just easier and works for more rooms.
Unique and special
Everyone has a fairly large TV shaped screen at home, and hardly anyone has Cinemascope. If showing off is a little bit important to you (and, let's be honest, it is), Cinemascope is something your friends and neighbours probably don’t have.
Against:
16:9 content can end up too small
I changed the design quite late-on from Cinemascope to 16:9 when I learned my client had a great love for Formula 1 at the weekends. Looking at the screen maths, the Grand Prix would be too small and less impressive if we stuck with plan A.
After some showroom demonstrations, we agreed that a small compromise for films was better 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 - you have to factor that into your screen calculations.
Finally, some projectors are native Cinemascope aspect, which is about perfect - these tend to be at the upper end of the price range.
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 the space is quite narrow, or if the ceilings are tall (that is, more than 2.7m), you may find it easier to have a big 16:9 screen, than a Cinemascope which could be too small for your 16:9 content.
Conversely, wider rooms often suit wider screens, so Cinemascope might work better.
We need to know:
- What are you like?
- What do you like?
- What size and shape is the room itself?
And then between us we can answer the question perfectly for you.
This is from the Cinemaworks launch event in October 2022 - photography by Ed Felton. Don't nick it.
Other screen aspects
There’s more!
My favourite film is ‘Back to the Future’ because I saw it at the cinema when I was eleven. That's why I hired a screen-accurate DeLorean for the showroom launch in 2022, and there's an ‘OUTATIME’ number plate above the cinema door.
Anyway - Back to the Future is filmed in 1.85:1 aspect, which is quite common for films that are more story-based than epic. On a TV that'd give you small black bars above and below.
IMAX often uses 1.9:1, and 2.0:1 is popular with modern streaming material - for example Stranger Things is in 2.0:1.
The perfect solution to all this is screen masking.
What is screen masking?
You might remember from the cinema, especially years ago - after the adverts and trailers, the screen gets wider, and then they show the film.
You can have a Cinemascope screen with moving black border at the sides, or a 16:9 screen with a moving border at the top and bottom. Either of those is called ‘2-way masking’.
You also get ‘4-way masking’ where both borders move, but that’s really quite expensive, so it’s less common.
All the advice above still applies. You should choose the main screen aspect according to taste and to the demands of the room - but screen masking will make the ‘other’ aspect work much better. The best masking screens will have various stop points, so we can do 1.9:1, 2.0:1, maybe even 4:3 for older films and TV.
Cinemaworks HQ has a 16:9 screen - that was originally dictated by the first projector having fixed lens. I still think it’s right for the room and for me, but I'd love to upgrade with top-bottom screen masking, and will do that in future.
If I build a second demo room with tiered seats, I'll want Cinemascope and side masking.
Let’s talk about screen aspect. Get in touch, tell us about your project, and we’d love to help.