Why 16:10?

[DaDane]

I have seen that a lot of screens (projectors as well as LCD) have a ratio of 16:10 and not 16:9. Why is that?

To be able to show both 16:9 and 4:3 without to much black border???
To be able to show a small menu underneath? (And will actually be nice to look at?)
For other reasons???

[tron3]

Originally Posted by DaDane

I have seen that a lot of screens (projectors as well as LCD) have a ratio of 16:10 and not 16:9. Why is that?

To be able to show both 16:9 and 4:3 without to much black border???
To be able to show a small menu underneath? (And will actually be nice to look at?)
For other reasons???

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can explain. My scientific guess is it has something to do with getting the image to fit on a screen with no over lap. Or maybe just the inherent nature of projecting light. Light tends to spread in all directions. Getting it to be exactly 16:9 is probably quite a feat of engineering. Anyone know for sure?

[erdega79]

16:10 is done only on computer monitors. I am not sure why but that's how it is.

[observer]

I have seen alot of screens that are 1280x768 instead of 1280x720 if thats what you mean.

I'm assuming they do this because they already have processes in place for creating 1024x768 panels and it was cheaper to manufacture new panels with the same pixel height count

[AV_Integrated]

Most of the companies did it for LCD & other flat panel displays for almost exclusively corporate & business use.

The original NEC 40" LCD was a 1280x768 panel.

Fortunately some companies (including NEC) have realized this is an error and they have their panels at 1365x768 or 1280x720 (or 1920x1080). There are very few current video panels that are 16:10 ratio instead of 16:9 that I am aware of.

Some? Yes, but those companies will eventually change I would think. 16:9 is the standard and computer manufacturers seem to be somewhat on board that they need to have 1280x720 and 1920x1080 as well as 1365x768 as mandatory output resolutions on decent video cards.

[Gorkab]

Originally Posted by AV_Integrated

Most of the companies did it for LCD & other flat panel displays for almost exclusively corporate & business use.

The original NEC 40" LCD was a 1280x768 panel.

Fortunately some companies (including NEC) have realized this is an error and they have their panels at 1365x768 or 1280x720 (or 1920x1080). There are very few current video panels that are 16:10 ratio instead of 16:9 that I am aware of.

Some? Yes, but those companies will eventually change I would think. 16:9 is the standard and computer manufacturers seem to be somewhat on board that they need to have 1280x720 and 1920x1080 as well as 1365x768 as mandatory output resolutions on decent video cards.

Yes ! I used to see this NEC, it was awesome but the resolution was not really for computing (with 60Hz urrrggg) :?