What does ‘aspect ratio’ on LCD TVs mean?

While you are checking out the specifications of LCD TVs you will come across the term ‘aspect ratio’, which sounds pretty technical but is actually a simple concept.

Aspect ratio refers to the width and height of the picture that is displayed and the relationship between the two. In other words it’s how wide and how high the image is on the screen.

At the time of writing, LCD TVs come in two aspect ratios - 16:9 or 4:3. It’s not the case that one is better than the other and it doesn’t refer to quality. 16:9 means if the picture on screen is 16 inches wide it will be 9 inches high.

Likewise, with 4:3, if a picture is 4 feet wide it will be 3 feet tall (this one is an exaggeration as hardly any LCD TVs are that big, but the example is just to illustrate how the 4:3 ratio works).

The 16:9 ratio is the standard for watching DVDs and for high definition TV (HD TV). It is sometimes known as widescreen. Most regular TV programme are broadcast in the 4:3 ratio, which is closer to a square shape and matches better the shape of old-style TVs (cathode ray tube TVs).

By altering the settings on your LCD TV you can change the preferred aspect ratio to suit what you are watching.

If you decide to watch normal TV programmes (non-HDTV) with the widescreen setting (16:9) you will lose a little bit of the screen on the top or bottom (or both) but probably not enough to affect your viewing experience.

If you put the setting of a widescreen LCD TV onto 4:3 ratio you will get the full image displayed, but there will be empty black spaces to the left and right of the picture which you might not like.

On balance, most people with LCD TVs watch with the widescreen setting (16:9) and indeed this is the default on the TV as it comes out of the box.