16:9 on a 21:9 Screen
Carl King
Keep in mind that the screen size of virtually all TVsno matter what their aspect ratiois measured diagonally so manufacturers can specify the largest possible number. Unfortunately, this makes the math a bit tricky. Using the Pythagorean Theorem (the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides), and knowing that the width of a 16:9 image is three quarters the width of a Vizio ultrawide set with the same height, I calculate that the diagonal measurement of a 16:9 image is about 0.8 times the diagonal measurement of the ultrawide screen. Thus, on a 50-inch ultrawide, an undistorted 16:9 image will measure only 40 inches diagonally.
This is akin to the transition from 4:3 to 16:9, when people had to buy a much larger HDTV than they thought in order to get a 4:3 image of the same size as their old square TV. So when going from 4:3 to 16:9 or from 16:9 to 21:9, get the largest screen size you can afford that will fit into the available space.
BTW, calling these ultrawide sets 21:9 is slightly misleading. 21:9 is equivalent to 2.33:1, but the Vizios' pixel array is 2560x1080, which translates to 2.37:1.
If you have an A/V question, please send it to askscottwilkinson@gmail.com.
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