Widescreen TV, with a 16:9 width-to-height ratio, undoubtedly represents the future for home theater designs. However, this does not mean that you should rule out standard TVs that use a 4:3 ratio screen. There are definitely good reasons to go for a 4:3 ratio TV or projection screen if your home theater design calls for it. Let’s explore the issue.

Firstly, from a point of view of cost, standard TVs are still cheaper than widescreen TVs, so if you have a restricted budget, this is worthy of consideration. You could perhaps get a good quality standard TV for the price of a budget widescreen model; definitely worth considering for your home theater design. The way the market is going, it will be possible to pick up standard TVs extremely inexpensively soon!

Secondly, there are still plenty of programs that were filmed using standard 4:3 ratio camera equipment. If you have a widescreen TV, you’ll find that you either have to put up with a distorted, stretched image, or you’ll have…