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There are a number of Standard (4:3) and Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio projectors available today. For the best experience you should select a projector that matches the aspect ratio of the primary source that you will be using. However, there will be times when you need to display an image of a different aspect ratio; for example, projecting a presentation from an SVGA laptop using a widescreen projector. When doing this the projected image will not always fill the screen. Depending on the aspect ratio of the projector and the source image you will encounter one of the following scenarios.
 

Projecting a Widescreen image with a Standard Projector

  • Screen aspect ratio: 4:3
  • Image aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Image width will fill the screen
  • Black bars along top and bottom of screen

To determine the size of the projected image:

Using the Lens Calculator the image width will still be correct.
To find the new image height: Image Height = Image Width x 9 / 16
Widescreen image with a Standard Projector

Projecting a Standard image with a Widescreen Projector

  • Screen aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Image aspect ratio: 4:3
  • Image height will fill the screen
  • Black bars along left and right of screen

To determine the size of the projected image:

Using the Lens Calculator the image height will still be correct.
To find the new image width: Image Width = Image Height x 4 / 3

Alternate Widescreen Aspect Ratios - 16:10, 17:9 or 17:10

A number of new projectors are being offered in widescreen aspect ratios other than 16:9. The results when projecting a standard 4:3 image with these widescreen projectors will be the same as the example above.
Standard image with a Widescreen Projector