1.
16:9 Enhanced - Scaled to 16:9
Image Name: 720x576-half.jpg
Image Resolution: 720x576 (Aspect: 1.25:1)
Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (1.78:1)
Display Resolution: 1024x576
This is an example of a real 16:9 video snap shot. 16:9 like this is sometimes called 16:9 Enhanced, or 16:9 Anamorphic).
You can see that images number 1, 2 & 3 are all the same image, just scaled (or stretched) differently.
This is what Standard Definition 16:9 is all about.
Video like this should take up the whole of a wide screen monitor or TV when the TV is set to the right setting (eg, Wide).
99% of the off the shelf 16:9 wide screen DVDs are sold like this (the other 1% are letterboxed but that is frowned apon). All Standard Definition (SD) digital TV (DVB) in Australia is transmitted this way (If it is 4:3 it is pillar-boxed, and also contains more information for the set top box to switch aspect ratios for 4:3 TVs, but this is just a side point).
2.
16x9 Enhanced - Not Scaled
Image Name: 720x576-half.jpg
Image Resolution: 720x576 (Aspect: 1.25:1)
Display Aspect Ratio: 1.25:1
Display Resolution: 720x576
This is the same image as number 1. This is how real 16:9 PAL is transmitted and recorded. It is up to the display device (monitor or TV) or the DVD player to apply scaling to get the display aspect ratio correct. All that is needed to turn image 2, into image 1, is some scaling. It should be scaled when a flag (that is either on or off, and is embedded in video or DVD data) is set to on so that both the DVD player and the TV know to stretch it properly. This is where the Anamorphic or Enhanced comes from, because the image is recorded and transmitted in a squished form and then streched out to get the real image.
3.
16:9 Enhanced - Scaled to 4:3
Image Name: 720x576-half.jpg
Image Resolution: 720x576 (Aspect: 1.25:1)
Display Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (1.33:1)
Display Resolution: 768x576
This is what 16:9 enhanced video will look like when the 16:9 flag is not set to on. The hardware DVD Player, DVD Software or Windows Media Player assumes it is 4:3 so will only scale it from 720x576 (original) to 768x576 (4:3).
If you input a 16:9 signal into the 3 x DVD recorder which is made up of 3 x MP6000s (with the latest firmware as of June 2006) and record a disc and then play it back using a conventional hardware DVD Player this is what you will get. If somebody adjusts the monitor manually by scaling (stretching) the picture then you will end up with picture 1 - i.e. no image distortion. This just requires a 16:9 plasma TV to be set to aspect : Wide. Ultimately this should be fixed by setting the 16:9 flag to on in the recorded DVD, which will solve this problem.
With a PC (Windows Media Player) you do not have the ability to tell the player to stretch the picture and hence all 16:9 recordings made on a current MP6000 will be played back looking like picture 3.
4.
4:3 (16:9 Letterboxed) - Scaled to 4:3
Image Name: 720x576-letterboxed-half.jpg
Image Resolution: 720x576 (Aspect: 1.25:1)
Display Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (1.33:1)
Display Resolution: 768x576
This is not how you want to record or transmit a 16:9 image as the black of the bars are encoded into the video, and resolution is lost. To display on a 16:9 screen (such as a Plasma), you would have to use the zoom setting. This is where people get confused and come up with numbers such as 720x431. It is a valid way of displaying a 16:9 enhanced image on a 4:3 screen (as opposed to Pan & Scanning, or centre cutting).
You get a 25% increase in resolution when recording 16:9 enhanced video (picture 1) as opposed to letterboxing (picture 4) which results in more detail and a clearer picture.
5.
4:3 (16:9 enhanced video) incorrectly cropped to 16:9
Image Name: 768x576-half-16x9badcrop.jpg
Image Resolution: 768x576 (Aspect: 4:3 / 1.33:1)
Display Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (1.33:1)
Display Resolution: 768x576
This is how 16:9 enhanced SD video would be displayed on a 4:3 monitor which just crops (adds black bars) top and bottom. The image is displayed with an incorrect aspect ratio (see the white what-should-be a circle). There is no value in this.