Widescreen TV
You are looking at the shape of the modern TV - and it has already become so well established, that the TV stations broadcast in it, and will do so increasingly in the future.
What is widescreen?
The shape of television has changed in recent years. Now widescreen has become a standard format. Widescreen TVs have screens with an 'aspect ratio' (the ratio of width to height) of 16:9, whereas traditional TVs are 4:3. The shift was inspired by the need to accommodate the widescreen format of films, and the ability of DVDs to reproduce this.
Do I want it?
Now broadcasters also use widescreen, and this is the format of High Definition TV (HDTV); so if your TV doesn't have widescreen capabilities, you are likely to lose bits off the edge.
Switching between formats
Traditional format (4:3) broadcasts can look distorted if played in a widescreen format. However, widescreen TVs usually allow you to switch formats at the click of a button to suit what you are watching, so you can watch in widescreen, or the traditional 4:3 format, or use the zoom facility to shape the image to your screen. Similarly 4:3 TVs may allow you to have widescreen images, but you will have black bands top and bottom, and so will effectively be using a reduced image area.
