The aspect ratio is called the "Academy Ratio" and it matched the
Hollywood product (hence the Academy as in Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences,.........................................

Lately, I've been using my puter to watch TV more than my actual
TV. Better pix, and I can putz around on the puter while I watch
all the talking heads, etc... :/
I'm using a ATI 9800 AIW card that has a phillips tuner in it.
It will shift the view for many aspect ratios. The usual 4:3,
but also 16:9, 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 in letterbox or widescreen.
Which do I usually use? The standard 4:3... :/ I generally prefer
it, and if a movie comes on in letterbox, it will show that way
even if I stay 4:3. I run my desktop at 1600x1200 res on a 21
inch monitor. The TV is much smoother than any regular TV
as you don't really see the pixels too much if you are up close.
A regular TV will look like a maze of dots if you hover up close.
This thing, you can hardly notice the pixels at all . If you sit back,
with it full screen, it's like a baby movie screen. With the 1600
desktop, if I window the TV as "large", it still only covers slightly
less than 1/4 of the screen. :/ At that setting, it's nearly like a
moving photograph. Kinda like psuedo HDTV...Not quite the
same, but it's semi close as far as perceived quality.
This TV/vid card is nifty cuz it also lets me record video.
So my puter is like a digi VCR. If I see something , say like
that sea plane blowing up and crashing into the water, , I can reach
over and record it...Yep. I did manage to record that actual crash
video.. You can see the explosion, and the fireball definitely
following the detached wing as it fell to the water. The rest
of the plane just zipped on down to the water.. It all happened
so fast, there was no chance for them to try anything.
Kinda looked like the prop sheared off into the wing..??
I guess they will know after they look at it.
MK