Have you ever wondered why there are black bars at the top and bottom of the screen when watching certain movies and TV shows? This doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s because the content creator would have otherwise had to crop the original aspect ratio of the movie or show to fit the consumer’s screen. For those who don’t know, an aspect ratio tells you how wide a screen is relative to its height, and most modern TVs have a 16:9 (pronounced “sixteen to nine”) aspect ratio, also known as 1.78:1.
The problem is that mega-blockbusters and large-scale cinematic epics (think of everything Christopher Nolan has made in the last 20 years) are often filmed with a wider aspect ratio. Ultra-wide formats, such as 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, are much wider than the average TV. This means that an engineer must reduce the size of the film or show, with black bars serving to maintain the overall composition.
But you won’t just see black bars when you watch movies like “Inception,” shot in 2.39:1. Movies and shows filmed with a more “boxier” aspect ratio – such as 1.33:1 – will also display black bars on a modern UHD TV, but along the left and right sides of the picture. You may also encounter older home video releases (especially during the early years of DVDs and DVD players) that were mastered for consumer 4:3 displays. Watch one of these movies on a modern 16:9 flat-screen TV, and the black bars can even form a thick frame around the image.
Your TV may have a zoom feature, but be careful how you use it
If you don’t like the black-barred look of movies and shows that are “letterboxed” (bars at the top) or “pillared-boxed” (bars on the sides), many TVs have a zoom feature that will stretch the media to fill the entire screen. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of image detail and can result in distortion and grain. Depending on how effective your TV is at upscaling content, you might also see more macro hangs and other image artifacts. You also need to make sure that you don’t zoom so far that you cut off parts of the image.
Here’s something else worth mentioning: not all movies and shows maintain the same aspect ratio throughout their runtime. Sometimes a creator may choose to shift to a more vertical or horizontal orientation, depending on the level of immersion they want the audience to experience at that point in the film or episode. If you use your TV’s zoom capabilities, you risk meddling with the emotional impact of the production (at least that’s what someone like Christopher Nolan would say).
Ultimately, the black bars are not a hindrance; they are designed to give you all the visual information you are supposed to see, while obscuring any remaining space. This isn’t a reading error or a TV problem: it’s how what you’re watching is supposed to be watched.
