Most common aspect ratio?

[hendra]

What is the most common wide screen aspect ratio of Blu-ray movies or for that matter regular DVD? I have seen 1.78:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2.40:1 and there may be others.

[BStecke]

This is just based on what I've seen, but I would say 2.35. No science involved in that whatsoever, though.

[Chevypower]

i would say older movies (1995 and older) most common was 1.85, these days 2.35 -also from no real science or evidence.

[zak88lx]

2.35:1 without a doubt.

Zak

[Deciazulado]

Silent films were 1.33. From about after 1931 till the mid fifties, sound movies were 1.37 "Academy". After the mid fifties Hollywood went widescreen with various formats and aspect ratios, The most common formats were anamorphic lens "CinemaScope" type widescreen, and "flat" lens Standard widescreen. "Scope" started as 2.55 with magnetic sound, but has changed a couple of times: After 1956 it went with the regular optical soundtrack and changed to 2.35, In the 70's to prevent splices showing up on screen it changed to 2.40, and in the mid 90's with the adiition of digital sound it changed slightly to 2.39. Standard flat lens widescreen varied between 1.66 and 1.85, with 1.85 becoming the "standard" in the US. So those two ratios, 1.85 "flat" and 2.39 "anamorphic" are the two most common ratios, being used for the last generation or two, with 1.37 for the pre-widesceen sound movies.

[ricwhite]

I'd say about 70% that I watch are 2.35:1

[hendra]

OK, it looks like that the consensus is 2.35:1 but if that is the case, why don't HDTV have 2.35:1 ratio? Most of the HDTV I have seen have 1.78:1 ratio. And what is the most common ratio for US Cable Channels these days? Do they still use the old 4:3 format?

[BStecke]

1.78 was deemed the best compromise for HDTV's. Combining TV and film there's a lot more content that fits properly on a 1.78 TV than compared to a 2.35 screen. A 2.35 screen would necessitate pillarboxing on all <2.35 content.