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KB01051 - Aspect Ratios Explained

Aspect ratio represents the proportional relationship between the images width and its height. The most commonly used aspect ratios are:

4:3 = Commonly used by standard definition devices.

16:9 = Commonly used by high definition sources and high definition displays/projectors

16:10 = Commonly used by computers and tablet computers.

While Atlona’s extenders and matrices do not change the aspect ratio that is being sent, Atlona’s scalers and converters often have the ability to adjust the aspect ratio of an image.

You may identify an aspect ratio issue when the image you are viewing is cut off at either the top/bottom, the left/right corners. The image may also be bordered with black bars on either top/bottom (aka letterbox), left/right (aka pillarbox)  or on all four corners (aka windowboxed). The image may also be missing information on the left/right sides which is called pan-scan.

  • Sending a 4:3 image to a native 16:9 monitor will force it to display the image with black bars on the left and right sides.
  • Sending a 16:10 image to a 16:9 monitor will cause image at all 4 sides to be cut off (you may not see your Start bar, for example).
  • Sending a 16:9 image to a 16:10 monitor will display the image with black bars top and bottom.
  • Sending a 16:9 image to a 4:3 display will typically cut off the image on the left and right sides

If you are having an issue in the way your image is displayed, Atlona recommends seeing if your display has an aspect ratio adjustment built in. Most HDTV displays have built-in internal scalers and thus can also scale an image that’s being sent to them. Check if your TV has an internal scaler which can be turned off. Often times TV remotes will have a “Picture” or “Aspect” button to access aspect ratio settings. Atlona recommends setting the TV to dot by dot, 1:1, normal or keep ratio which should prevent the TV from scaling. If your Atlona device has a built-in scaler with aspect ratio control, please try setting it to keep ratio which will maintain the aspect ratio being sent by the source. If this does not look good, you may try setting the aspect ratio to 16:9 or 16:10 depending on your display’s capabilities.

 

 Article ID: KB01051 

 

 

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