RCA M50WH187 manual Introduction, Thank You for Choosing RCA, Resolution, Aspect Ratio

4 x 3 Aspect Ratio

16 x 9 Aspect Ratio

Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratio is simply the width and height of the picture. Regular TVs use a 4 x 3 aspect ratio, which means the picture is a little wider than it is tall (a screen that is 20 inches wide is about 15 inches tall).

As TVs dropped in price and people prospered in the 1950s, the movie industry created the 16 x 9 aspect ratio (also called widescreen format) to get people back to seeing movies. When the standards for HDTV were being developed by the ATSC (Advanced Television Standards Committee), the 16 x 9 aspect ratio was chosen as the format for HDTV.

This widescreen format is much closer to the way we see and the pictures are crisper and cleaner with more detail in the close-up and panoramic views.

Digital Signal and Sound

The analog television broadcast system that has been used in the United States for the past 50 years transmits signals as electronic waves. These waves can suffer degradation as the signal travels to your home. Digital signals, in contrast to analog signals, can be reproduced precisely because the images are transmitted and received using the computer language of 1s and 0s. Such precision yields a signal that is capable of displaying studio-quality picture and Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound.