Video Display Resolutions and Aspect Ratios

Under construction ... but hopefully still interesting and useful ...

So "what's all this talk about" video display resolutions and aspect ratios?  It certainly is an issue if you are shopping for a new TV -- see HDTV versus NTSC Screen Size.  For computer use, it is less of an issue as most software is relatively flexible in video resolution and aspect ratio except for most games.  There are certainly a large number of resolutions used by various computers.  The following table summarizes modern video display resolutions and aspect ratios, clealy illustrating the complexity.

Table of Video Display Resolutions and Their Aspect Ratios

resolution
aspect ratio
name
comment
width
height
Mpel
integer
real
description

640
480
0.30
4:3
1.33
VGA
VESA
720
480
0.35
3:2
1.50
DVD

800
600
0.48
4:3
1.33
SVGA
VESA
1024
768
0.79
4:3
1.33
XGA
VESA
1152
864
1.00
4:3
1.33
Mac
1 Mpel
1280
720
0.92
16:9
1.78
HDTV
720p, ex., DLP, LCD, LCoS HDTVs
1280
768
0.98
5:3
1.67

< HDTV aspect, ex., LCD HDTVs
1280
854
1.11
3:2
1.50
Mac 15W
15-inch Wide Powerbook
1280
960
1.23
4:3
1.33
Mac 17
eMac max res
1280
1024
1.31
5:4
1.25
SXGA
VESA, not 4:3
1366
768
1.05
16:9
1.78
WXGA
VESA+, HDTV aspect, ex., LCD HDTVs, NVidia 1360x768
1440
900
1.30
8:5
1.60
Mac 17MW
17-inch Megawide Powerbook or iMac
1440
1080
1.56
4:3
1.33
SXGA+
VESA,
1600
1200
1.92
4:3
1.33
UXGA
VESA, LCD max
1680
1050
1.76
8:5
1.60
Mac 20MW
20-inch Megawide Cinema display or iMac
1920
1080
2.07
16:9
1.78
HDTV
1080i or 1080p
1920
1200
2.30
8:5
1.60
Mac 21MW
21-inch Megawide Cinema display
2560
1600
2.30
8:5
1.60
Mac 30MW
30-inch Megawide Cinema display
1920
1440
2.76
4:3
1.33

VESA
2048
1536
3.15
4:3
1.33
QXGA
VESA, CRT max, 3 MP digicam
2272
1704
3.87
4:3
1.33

4 MP digicam
2560
1920
4.92
4:3
1.33

5 MP digicam
3264
2448
7.99
4:3
1.33

8 MP digicam

The table is ordered first by width, and secondly by height, showing our bias in favor of width.  Maybe it should be a tiny database sortable by any field.  I've taken the liberty of adding selected digicam resolutions and their aspect ratios.  Square pixes are assumed, so products like plasma panels with non-square pixes are not included.  The list of VESA resolutions is also not exhaustive, and of course everything is subject to change.  VESA states, "Although VGA, SXGA and other terms have been commonly used to refer to particular display formats, in reality they refer to particular graphics adapters that may support multiple formats. Because of this, VESA does not use these terms when referring to particular display formats."

Trends

This summary is not just interesting as an academi study, it may also illuminate some obvious trends for late adopters and other people trying to avoid the bleeding edge.  We also hope for some cross fertilization as much of the underlying technology is the same.

Graph of Video Display Resolutions and Aspect Ratios

  Graph of Video Resolutions and Aspect Ratios

Wallpaper

So what's the real reason for this discussion?  Now that I have a digicam, how do I turn my photos and other images into wallpaper for my displays at their various resolutions and aspect ratios?  Yes, aspect ratio is everything.  There's a huge body of wallpaper related pages on the web, so we'll focus on aspect ratio here.

Action
Example
Survey your displays 1600x1200 1440x900 1280x1024 1280x864 1280x720 1024x768 640x480
Survey and select your wallpaper software settings KDEBackground - Wallpaper - (*)Multiple wallpapers, Mode: Tiled,  Setup Multiple ... Interval: 30 minutes Mode: Random
Mac OS X - Desktop - Fill screen, [v] Change picture: every 30 minutes, [v] Random order
Windows XP - Display - Desktop - Background: httpwall, Position: Center, httpwall
Group your displays by aspect ratio
from high res to low res
4:3 1.33 - 1600x1200 1280x960 1024x768 640x480
3:2 1.50 - 1280x864
8:5 1.60 - 1440x900
16:9 1.78 - 1280x720
Select aspect ratios and (adjusted) resolutions

4:3 1.33 - 1600x1200 1280x960 1024x768 640x480
8:5 1.60 - 1440x900
16:9 1.78 - 1280x720
For each selected aspect ratio
    crop or border
    save set
Photoshop image crop, select background fill color, image canvas
Photoshop action image size & save for each resolution in aspect

Cropping and Filling

pending ...
the Art of Cropping and Filling
Photoshop tips

Wallpaper software survey

Here's an example survey of wallpaper software settings.

Software
Mode
Position
Aspect
preserved
Full
image
Single screen
Multiple screen
KDE
Appearance & Themes
Background



supports multiple wallpapers with selectable interval, In Order or Random
Multiple screen for Driver "mtx" Option "TripleHead" is really single screen on 3 equal heads

Centered
yes
yes
<=
good only when wallpaper size is close to screen size good only when wallpaper size is close to full screen size

Tiled
yes
yes
<=
good only when screen width is a multiple of wallpaper width
good only when single head screen width is a multiple of wallpaper width, better than centered tiled

Centered Tiled
yes
yes
<=
good only when screen width is a multiple of wallpaper width and screen height is a multiple of wallpaper width
good only when wallpaper width equals single screen width, tiled is better

Centered Maxpect
yes
cropped
!=
good when wallpaper aspect is close to screen aspect
good only when wallpaper aspect is less than or equal to screen aspect

Tiled Maxpect
yes
cropped
!=
good when wallpaper aspect is close to screen aspect good only when wallpaper aspect is less than or equal to screen aspect

Scaled
no
yes
not recommended
not recommended

Centered Auto Fit
yes
yes
good only when wallpaper aspect is close to screen aspect good only when wallpaper aspect is close to screen aspect
Mac OS X
Desktop & Screen Saver



supports multiple wallpapers with interval 5 sec, 1/5/15/30 minutes, hour, or day, in order or Random order

Fill screen
(Centered Maxpect)
yes
cropped
!=
good when wallpaper aspect is close to screen aspect good when wallpaper aspect is close to screen aspect

Stretch to fill screen
no
yes
not recommended
not recommended

Center
yes
yes
<=
good only when wallpaper size is close to screen size good only when wallpaper size is close to screen size

Tile
yes
yes
<=
good only when screen width is a multiple of wallpaper width good only when screen width is a multiple of wallpaper width
Windows XP






Center
yes
yes
<=
good only when wallpaper size is close to screen size good only when wallpaper size is close to full screen size

Tiled
yes
yes
<=
good only when screen width is a multiple of wallpaper width good only when wallpaper width equals single screen width

Stretched
no
yes
not recommended
not recommended

This is just an example, and not a complete survey, but here are some observations based my esthetic preferences.
In general, we want to generate and select wallpaper matched to the screen dimensions.  I've focussed on single screen wallpaper, useful for tiling on multihead displays of matching dimensions.  For information on multi-monitor wallpaper, see the Multi-Monitor FAQ.

Wallpaper server

If you have multiple computers, you probably want to have a wallpaper server.  Simply put your wallpaper onto a web server so that your wallpaper can be accessed by URL.  For Linux and Mac OS X, you can run a script on your client that uses wget to fetch them at an interval that matches your wallpaper software settings, using a temp file and mv so that the image is complete, and sleep to wait for the matching time interval.  On Windows, I recommend HttpWall which will fetch and set wallpaper using properties of your choice for both URL and time interval.  An obvious improvement to OS wallpaper software would be to specify wallpaper via URL -- I don't know why this hasn't yet been implemented in any of KDE, Mac OS X, or Windows.

If you have permissions on your web server, you can install a CGI script that randomly picks wallpaper for you.  Then use the URL to the CGI script in your wget script for Linux or Mac OS X, or in the URL property for HttpWall.

Other

Pending ...
TV overscan/bezel
Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) "Nevermind"

Links

st61g4 thumbnail PC/XPC - Interesting PC Configurations and Topics - Home Theater, Wallpaper, and Small Form Factor PC

HDTV HTPC HDTV HTPC - record and playback HDTV with DVICO FusionHDTVII tuner card
TV icon Digital TV -- DTV notes, includes mathematical comparison of NTSC 4:3 versus HDTV 16:9 aspect ratios

HDTV Aspect HDTV versus SDTV(NTSC) Screen Size - includes diagram of aspect ratios, scale factors, conversion graph, advocacy for HDTV

Reference

VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association - http://www.vesa.org/
ATSC - Advanced Television Systems Committee - http://www.atsc.org/

Home Video Systems Visual Resolution Comparison - http://www.cs.tut.fi/~leopold/Ld/ResolutionComparison/
Multi-Monitor Resources - FAQ - http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/faq.asp

Tools

HttpWall - http://users.pandora.be/bruno.keymolen/wall.htm
WallPaper Editors and Tools - http://www.winwarelinks.com/apps/system/wallpaper_tools.htm

Wallpaper

A special thanks to Nancy Mintz for many wallpaper links.

grin.hq.nasa.gov/
visibleearth.nasa.gov/
www.agfanet.com/en/cafe/gallery/cont_how.php3
www.antipixel.com/blog/index.shtml
www.atpm.com/Back/desktop-pictures.shtml
www.ephemera.org/archives/
www.macdesktops.com/
www.macdesktop.com/
www.megapixel.net/html/issueindex.php?lang=en
www.steves-digicams.com/dpotd_archives.html

xxlwallpapers.com/

NoBell Home - gjm - last update 6/29/2004 - created 4/16/2004