Ask the Infrastructure Experts! Lesia’s Q&A Corner
Do we really know what aspect ratio means?
It seems lately aspect ratios have become a more important topic in the industrial world. Do people really understand what aspect ratio is when they say, “ I have to have 16:9”? Do they know what the standard is? Or even how it works?
Let’s step back and review, because I have a feeling some people do not understand what it really means; shoot, I was in the Audio Visual industry for 2 years before someone really explained it to me!
An aspect ratio is the ratio of an image’s width to its height; expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. To keep it simple, for example 4:3 (4 by 3) is “standard-definition” (SD) and has been the standard since televisions were created. 4:3 has a more square form to it. 16:9 high-definition (HD) was only introduced in the early 1990’s by Dr. Kerns H. Powers, a member of Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE), who was working with the high-definition Electronic Production Group. After Dr. Powers showed through visual representation of rectangles that the center point of 4:3 and 16:9 really had no difference, people started considering 16:9. From that point, 16:9 was selected as a compromise format. With the subsequent popularity of HDTV, broadcasters had solidified 16:9 as perhaps the most important video aspect ratio of the future. The future now being the present, you can find HD and widescreen displays and TV’s everywhere.
16:9’s viewing area is a more rectangular shape for a wider view, hence the black bars on your standard TV when viewing a DVD shot in widescreen format. These black bars are your Television’s way of auto correcting the display, most televisions have auto correction but for older models that do not you will notice the image is skewed: short and fat and vice versa 4:3 on a 16:9 format will look stretched and egg shaped. This same effect will occur on your displays in the office. This article is not to teach you how to shop for your next television but to explain how to select the proper displays for your next Wonderware Application.
Wonderware InTouch will support both 4:3 and 16:9. It is recommended that you develop your graphics in the same aspect ratio format as the InTouch runtime node. If your runtime node is going to be 16:9 then it is suggested that your engineering workstation also be 16:9. InTouch Window Viewer can automatically scale the runtime aspect ratio of an application that was developed at a different aspect ratio, however, the images may look skewed, as explained earlier.
In most new applications, the displays are not much of a priority up front but, believe it or not, they are an important aspect to the whole job. When working on your next project a Wonderware InTouch application, you may want to consider the aspect ratio of all the equipment you will use. InSource would love to assist you with any and all questions and concerns you have may with your next project so please feel free to contact us!
For more information on Wonderware InTouch or aspect ratios please contact Lesia Bell, Client Services, Hardware Specialist at 443.683.8031 or email her at lbell@insourcess.com.
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