Which Home Theater Screen Aspect Ratio is Best – 2.40:1, 2.35:1 or 16:9?

Certainly one of the most important things to decide for your home theater is the size, shape, surface type and location of your projection screen. Your screen needs to perform best for your setup and also fit into your theater for the best experience. But the shape, commonly called the “aspect ratio” or “format”, is really all about WHAT you’re going to watch and should be the first thing you choose.

An aspect ratio or format is simply the ratio of width to height of a rectangle. Your display (including projectors), your screen and even the content itself can have different aspect ratios. For example, 16:9 (or “1.78” if you divide 16 by 9) is the width-to-height ratio of HDTV and 4K / Ultra HDTV displays and it also the produced ratio of most TV sports, news and talk shows these days. 1.85:1 is the aspect ratio of about 20% of the most popular movies. 2.4:1 (rounded up from a more precise 2.393:1), is the aspect ratio of the most popular movies made after about 1972 and increasingly the aspect ratio of streaming content. 2.35:1 is the aspect ratio of many movies before 1972. Unfortunately some people still say “2.35:1” for today’s content but 2.4:1 is certainly more accurate since it represents the industry standard. However …

Don’t be concerned about all the different display, projection and movie aspect ratios out there. This can all be simplified for two reasons. First, all the content having aspect ratios from 2.4:1 to 2.35:1 and even somewhat lower fit most comfortably on the current industry standard 2.4:1 cinema format screen with a standard screen border width of about 3.5″ (90mm). This applies whether or not you use an anamorphic lens. Second, what you watch is really going to boil down to whether it’s primarily typical made-for-TV content or if it’s primarily movies and streaming content. Movies and today’s streaming content are mostly in the cinema format. So …

If your theater is primarily for news, sports and similar TV content other than streaming shows: Use a 16:9 format screen. Almost all such content and even some special HDTV movies are delivered in the 16:9 aspect ratio. So naturally if your primary content is 16:9 then a matching 16:9 screen aspect ratio only makes sense. Important: Movies watched from cable, satellite, Netflix, Amazon, etc. that were originally made for commercial theaters are NOT made-for-HDTV programming. Just because a movie is delivered over an “HDTV” channel doesn’t mean it has an HDTV aspect ratio. With a 16:9 screen you’ll be watching most movies and today’s popular streaming content with black letterbox bars at the top and bottom, but at least your made-for-HDTV content will be perfectly framed. But wait … if your room is much wider than it is tall then a 2.4:1 screen with sports stretched out to fill the screen might still make the most sense. If you want to go big, go wide with the 2.4:1 cinema format.

If your theater is primarily for movies and streaming content: Use a 2.4:1 cinema format screen with a screen frame border at least 3.5” (90mm) wide. Over 80% of all major motion pictures are made in the 2.4:1 cinema format and the average aspect ratio for new streaming content is about 2.2:1 (and migrating to 2.4:1). If your primary interest is in this wider content then it makes sense to match your screen to what you are watching and, quite frankly, you really don’t want to see or waste performance on those black letterbox bars used to squeeze that content down to fit on a smaller display format.  Actual content with smaller aspect ratios including HDTV news and sports will still fill the height of your screen, just not the full width. This is a similar effect to larger commercial movie theaters where the height is the same for all movies while side curtains adjust for the different widths. Note that with an anamorphic projection system there are even some ways to have smaller movies and HDTV content fill your entire 2.4:1 screen as well, so you can actually get rid of black areas for just about everything you watch. If you don’t use an anamorphic lens then you will need to zoom and shift the image down when watching smaller movies and HDTV programming. 

If you are still undecided, use a 2.4:1 format screen with a screen frame border at least 3.5” (90mm) wide. If you are still undecided then it means you value HDTV sports, news and similar content in its original aspect ratio and cinema-format content such as movies and streaming programs somewhat equally. However, even though HDTV and smaller movies won’t naturally fit a cinema format screen, at least they will fill the vertical dimension of that screen so there will never be huge black bars above and below the image. And again, if you happen to be using an anamorphic lens for maximum performance for your cinema format content then you automatically have some additional options to have even HDTV content fill your cinema format screen (see the “How can I Watch 16:9 Content” article).

… and if you are still undecided – Use a 2.4:1 format screen with a screen frame border at least 3.5” (90mm) wide. Are you still on the edge? Then realize this: The movies listed below represent 208 of the top 300 movies of all time ranked by world wide box office gross receipts (as of summer, 2015). Every one of these movies was filmed in the cinema 2.4:1 format. So if you don’t choose the cinema format for your screen, these often epic-class movies will be shown smaller than anything else you watch in your theater. Of course, if you DO choose the cinema format then these movies will now be the largest, most immersive content you watch in your theater, just like in commercial cinemas. And if you want to take the final step for the ultimate performance including 30%+ higher brightness and resolution for these titles, that’s the time for anamorphic projection.