4;3 or 16;9

[smartiepants]

looking at getting my screen shortly & need advise
do i get 4;3 or 16;9 i cannot see any advantage in a 16;9 as when viewing 4;3 on a 16;9 screen you would end up having to reduce pic size to view it all but with a 4;3 you get no reduction in size, is this right

still looking for best screen for my Optoma h56 any advise

 

[ReTrO]

If the Optoma is native 16:9 then get a 16:9 screen for it. If it were 4:3 then maybe they'd be the option.

If you wanted to run a native 16:9 projector on a 4:3 and have a bigger 4:3 image than 16:9 you'll be having to constantly change the zoom on it, provided of course, that will zaoom enough to do both.

 

[smartiepants]

Just found this
The Themescene H56 can be set up and operated as either a 4:3 projector or a 16:9 projector. You tell it which screen format you are using, and it will adjust both 4:3 and 16:9 source material to your screen. If you operate in 4:3 mode, a 4:3 source will fill the screen, and 16:9 material will be shown with black bars top and bottom. If you operate in 16:9 mode, then 16:9 source material will fill your screen, and 4:3 material will either be (at your option) truncated to fill the screen, or reduced full frame in the center with bars on the side.

So it looks like 4;3 would be best

 

[KraGorn]

You may want to read this ProjectorCentral article which gives a pretty exhaustive commentary on this decision.

 

[ReTrO]

If it's a native 16:9 panel then a 16:9 screen is your best option, otherwise it's a waste of picture quality, as you won't be using all thge pixels etc.

 

[womble9]

FTAO Smartiepants.
Sorry to be off the topic a little here but I've sent you a pm re the problems you had with your H50 not displaying black properly, I too have a H50 and I was wondering what prog scan component you had problems with it with so as i can hopefully avoid having the same problem as I'm looking to buy a prog scan DVD player soon. Cheers.