Why Do Black Bars Appear at the Top & Bottom of My Widescreen HDTV?

Written by Clearly Resolved
Sunday, 20 May 2007

[ Q ] I thought that having a widescreen HDTV would mean that I wouldn't see black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, but they still appear sometimes. Why?

[ A ] There's a couple of possible explanations.

The first thing you should do is check that you've correctly configured your video sources, such as your DVD player or cable/satellite receiver. These settings are usually found in the Setup or Installation menu, but if you have trouble locating them you should refer to the user manual for each device. The settings for aspect ratio are usually found under a Video or Display submenu, and you should be looking for an option like "widescreen" or "16x9 widescreen." You want to avoid settings such as "full screen," "4x3" or "4x3 letterbox," as use of incorrect settings could cause black bars to appear when they shouldn't be visible -- and the wrong setting might also cause picture distortions.

If your source settings are correct, you may still occasionally see black bars at the top and bottom of certain types of programming, though this will primarily be limited to certain types of movies.

The 16x9 HDTV screen format is very similar to some of the more common Hollywood film formats, but it isn't as wide as the widest formats, such as Cinemascope or Panavision. When these very wide format films are presented on an HDTV screen, it is necessary to have black bars at the top and bottom in order to fit the entire width of the picture within the 16x9 screen area.

Some HDTVs provide a user-adjustable method for eliminating black bars by electronically "zooming" or "cropping" the image, but this almost always results in an undesirable loss of picture information. In the extreme, use of this sort of viewing mode can result in characters at the far right or left sides of the picture disappearing from view, which can be confusing when those unseen actors are delivering critical dialog.

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