Who doesn’t like to play games and watch movies in HD quality? Here, the quality of the screen can make or break your experience. Generally, screens are classified into two types: Widescreen and Fullscreen.
Widescreen vs Fullscreen
The main difference between the widescreen and fullscreen is that widescreen has a ratio of 16:9 whereas fullscreen has a 4:3 ratio. An example of fullscreen is the 90s black and white Tv which has a square screen. Widescreen is usually seen in the LCD and LED televisions which has a wide-ranged screen. The screen size is decided by the number of pixels.
Widescreen allows you to view more of the picture and more of the background as well at a time. It does not have a direct focus on the main subject. This type of screen are also ideal for gaming to give an immersive experience altogether.
Fullscreen is expected to show more of the screen and hence here it lets us to compromise on the quantity of the pictures been seen on the screen at a time. It has more focus toward the main subject or the character and hence less distraction. It is used on computer or monitors and mobile devices. This type of screen are ideal for the browsing purposes as you can target all the attention to the one point you are looking for.
Comparison Table Between Widescreen and Fullscreen
| Parameters of Comparison | Widescreen | Fullscreen |
| Ratio of screen | 16:9 width:height | 4:3 width:height |
| Resolution | High display resolution | Comparatively low display resolution |
| Focus | Does not focus on the main subject | Focus on the main subject |
| Era of demand | Late 90s and 21st century | Prior than 90s |
| Examples | LCD, LED, HDTV | Mobile screen, old television set |
What is Widescreen?
Widescreen is a type of screen where the images are displayed with a particular ratio (16:9) width to the height. Sometimes, it is not necessary to be 16:9 ratio, any screen wider than 4:3 can be termed as widescreen. Earlier, widescreens were in the ratio of 16:10 later on, it changed to 16:9 for better quality resolution.
A widescreen television has a screen with a bigger width than the typical fullscreen. This enables the watcher to see a great amount of the picture without stressing their eyes. In this type of screen, empty black spaces are usually not seen or are very minimal, this gives a high quality of picture quality. Anyone having a widescreen TV wouldn’t have dark bars on most widescreen motion pictures, and would extremely minuscle ones on a limited handful whose recording viewpoint was considerably more extensive.
The portable and desktop widescreen displays are the types of widescreen displays. Portable screens are smaller than normal televisions, but they are also significantly more portable. They are similar to the widescreen displays used on laptops and tablets.
What is Fullscreen?
Fullscreen is a type of screen where the images are displayed in the ratio of 4:3 width to the height. When watching a film in full screen, close to half of the visuals are lost (the left and right parts of the screen) due to which one don’t experience a better quality vision. The visuals are edited and marginally zoomed in so the visuals fit the smaller TV as contrasted and the more extensive screens when watching at a theater.
The full screen hand a simple 4:3 ratio screen, but is stretched as to look like 16:9 standard ratio. It is used on computer or monitors and mobile devices. This type of screen are ideal for the browsing purposes as you can target all the attention to the one point you are looking for.
At the beginning of the 21st century, manufacturers were more concerned about 16:9 ratio screens and started manufacturing screens of that size. This made the increase in the demand for widescreen and the use of the 4:3 ratio (fullscreen) gradually decreased.
Main Differences Between Widescreen and Fullscreen
The main difference between fullscreen and widescreen is that full screen is merely an old-fashioned 4:3 screen that has been stretched out to seem like the 16:9 norm.
- The image is the same size as a 4:3 screen, but it appears to be 16:9, whereas widescreen has the better visual experience because of the 16:9 ratio screen and also the image is not been cut down.
- For example consider watching video wide screen will allow you to see more pictures, which means more details and better quality as it has a large width than the normal giving a eye-catching visual effect that is pleasing to watch.
- While if the same video is watched on the full screen it will bring your attention only towards the main character or the subject, and will only be interesting if you want to notice a particular character in the scene.
- The resolution power is high with the wider screen in comparison to the full screen. The reason behind this is simple, which is that the wide screen needs to fit more quantity of pictures or content on the screen at a time.
- While using full screen mode there is a option open to choose if you want to view the content at a higher resolution or to reduce its size.
Conclusion
It is currently been acknowledged that the widescreen format is better amongst the both. It allows you to watch both TV projects and films at the biggest possible display size. As increasingly more widescreen TVs are showing up in the homes, even TV networks are taking on the widescreen design.
The widescreen design for TVs is just accessible, however, when you prefer a computerized transmission format and not through the standard cables. No one who loves to watch the movie will prefer a fullscreen and they don’t want to cover half of the screen with the black bar. So, widescreens are in high demand in this era.
References
- https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tjvXE7lrywoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:UFOEqsYVEgcJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=bHe8eERRM9&sig=GWBxUh5OlqXWhyqe3FsqeHWprZE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
- https://www.osapublishing.org/abstract.cfm?uri=pcAOP-2017-JTu5A.31