Aspect Ratio: 16x9 or 2.35 Which is Right for YOU?? 

@@scotttild I got a Seymour AV 128 inch wide AT 16:9 screen (about 146 inch diagonal). If I went 2.39, I would have lost about 8 inches on top and bottom and that would make a small super bowl picture as it came in 16:9. I have a really dark room and an LCOS projector so really, the black bars go away. If the room doesn't have good light control, yes, the screen will reflect ambient light and you will notice more the bars on the top and bottom. For me, 16:9 worked, but for other people, the 2.39 may be better. They though must accept a smaller broadcast picture, or smaller 16:9 movie and experience the black bars on the side instead, and use the lens memory to shrink the picture to get it to fit on the 2.39 screen. Good luck, and you can get Seymour to make any size screen you want, or build one and use their material.

you have to pick one

@@Dreamediaav I think what PixelVogue is asking is what about movies that change aspect ratios throughout. It's pretty popular now in many movies to use different aspect ratios for different scenes.

I want to know that too, very confusing for me.

For those kind of movies with more than one aspect ratio, 16:9 is definitely the best option...

4 years late but I went with 16:9 Films with different aspect ratios will always suit a 16:9 screen better Also I play video games on it too so it was a no brainer for me.

Yes 2;35.1 is wider than 16.9. And yes if you have a 2;35.1 screen you will have black or grey bars and either side when projecting 16.9. But considering most movies are in 2;35.1 you will constantly have black bars on top and bottom all the time watching movies on a 16.9 screen. Hope this helps

That's correct, it's like your TV when using a 16:9 / 1.78:1 screen with black bars above and below, but within the screen frame area when projecting any film wider than 1.78:1; e.g 1.85:1 or 2.39:1. When you use a 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 screen you bring your widescreen film image, e.g 2.39:1, up to the top of the screen, and down to the bottom, and the projected black bars go on to the frame, and over the top and bottom of the frame. The edge of the film image goes right to the edge of the screen, if the film is exactly 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 depending on your screen size with no black bars projected left or right. Therefore to project a native 16:9 / 1.78:1 image like TV sports or The Godfather onto a 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 screen you bring it in so that the top of the projected image is at the top of the screen, and the bottom at the bottom. When you do this you won't fill the width of the 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 screen, so you will have an unprojected vertical strip at the left and right. Your 16:9 / 1.78:1 image will be smaller than you could achieve with a 16:9 / 1.78:1 screen. You would do this so that you can maximise the width of 1.85:1 up to 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 films, if these are the films you want to maximise impact of. The cost is your 1.78:1, 1.66:1, 1.43:1 and 1.37:1 films are smaller than you can achieve with a 16.9 / 1.78:1 screen. Many modern films to this very day are 1.78:1, e.g The Godfather which was 1.85:1, but Francis Ford Coppola opened it up to 1.78:1, using the film they had shot above and below, many European films from the 60's and 70's are 1.66:1, and older films like Casablanca are 1.43:1 and earlier films are 1.37:1. If you watch a lot of old movies, or a lot of broadcast TV e.g sports and you choose a 16:9 / 1:78:1 screen then you make the opposite compromise and all your 1.85:1 up to 2.35:1, or 2.39:1 films will be smaller than you could achieve on a 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 screen, and will appear much like on your TV, with projected black bars top and bottom within the 16.9 / 1.78:1 screen. This method is actually recommended by the professional standards bodies because it's easier to maintain uniformity of calibration between all the ratios, and correct viewing angles etc. But 99.9 % of us enthusiasts want to go with a widescreen even though it's more complicated and compromised because of the advantages of maximising the impact of widescreen movies. There is a great podcast where all this was discussed when wide screens were just becoming available and projectors were starting to get memories for different aspect ratios. You can find it on the UK avforums website. It's their podcast of 25th November 2008. It's too old to be on the feed, so you have to download it on the website. One extra complication of a 2.39:1 screen is that there are a small number of extra wide films at 2.55:1 or even 2.76:1 such as the recent "The Hateful Eight". These are so wide that to fit them on to a 2.39:1 screen, width wise, you have to zoom them in a bit, leaving projected blacks bars above and below, on the screen material. But this is only a few movies. If you use a 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 screen it's a good idea to line the wall you are installing the screen on with a dark velvet, just like wallpaper. Then when you project black bars outside the screen area, they go onto the felt of the frame, and the black bars that spill outside the frame are projected onto the dark velvet on the wall and absorbed. Since a 2.39:1 screen will be a constant image height setup, (with the exception of the few very wide films - 2.55:1 and 2.76:1) you will have unprojected vertical strips to the left and right on non wide films such as 1.85:1, 1.78:1, 1.66:1, 1.43:1 and 1.37:1. So it's a good idea to add side masking. You can get screens with black masking that pulls in from the left and right, or you can get a set of dark curtains installed around the screen, and you just pull them in left and right, a bit more each time, the less wide the film is.

Retired at 49 that's a good way to put it because people say 16:9 vs 2.39:1, and this confuses people unfamiliar. We should say 1.78:1 vs 2.39:1 because most people new to ratios can visualise that easy enough, the latter being wider. 16:9 vs 2.39:1, they think WTF

@@davidspropaganda thanks!!

@@davidspropaganda excellent read.. great help. Much appreciated.

it has lens memory. you get to save any format you want

@@Dreamediaav Thanks!

@@Dreamediaav So... you get to "save:" the zoom you have to do to get the 2.35:1 aspect. It STILL is not native to the projector. You can use ANY projector with a motorized zoom to achieve the wider aspect. As a videographer and tech of over 30 years of experience, you have a LOT of misinformation in your video.

mjbalog projectors will never match the hdr, but digital IMAX would be about 1.9:1