What is Widescreen format?

The widescreen format is getting more and more popular with most of the consumers going in for high-definition. High-definition television supporting the widescreen format is fast becoming a reality in many households in many countries because of affordable prices and of course very high quality and video experience.

But what exactly is the widescreen format? You will find answers to some of your queries on Widescreen here and whether camcorders also support it or not.

In general digital camcorders tend to follow the latest developments in the television and video world. For that reason, most of the digital camcorders nowadays do support the widescreen format

The traditional video format is PAL and NTSC, depending on the part of the world you are in. Images in this format support an aspect ratio of 4:3. Images captured with 4:3 aspect ratio is what we have been accustomed to seeing over the years and that is what our televisions also support.

Images in widescreen format on the other hand will be wider have an aspect ratio of 16:9. It simply means that the images are shot with 16:9 aspect ratio. Since it gives a much better viewing experience, widescreen resolution is mostly available on cinema screens and on widescreen digital TV.

But do the camcorders actually support the widescreen format or are they using some technique to fake it? Actually they fake it, especially the low-cost digital camcorders. What it does is that it shaves-off the top and the bottom of the footage, to give a cinema like effect. The aspect ratio of the picture is still the normal 4:3, with the usual video quality.