Designing for 4:3 or 16:9 screen

As there are both 4:3 and 16:9 (wide screen) TVs on the market, the question comes up whether to build a single service portal or several service portals to support different formats. As a service portal designer on the KreaTV IP-STB, you have control over every aspect except the TV, and must then design the service portal such that it will match most screens.

A service portal designed for the 4:3 format can be displayed correctly on all TV screens (16:9 TVs have settings to display 4:3 format with pillarboxing). However, this will affect the played content as well, which means that 16:9 content will be compressed. Since 4:3 TV's are becoming increasingly rare, it is recommended to design portals for the 16:9 format or to provide an option to switch between 4:3 and 16:9.

A page designed for 4:3 format displayed in 4:3 and 16:9

You retrieve information about the TV format used, using the Video Output service.

Service portals in the format 16:9 will be displayed on the same area as is used for 4:3 service portals. The difference is that all graphics to use for the 16:9 service portal must be rescaled and repositioned to match the dimensions when stretched out on a wide screen TV. If the service portal instead is displayed on a 4:3 format TV, the picture will seem very compact.

A page designed for 16:9 format should be rescaled to look like the left image to be proportional in the correct format to the right.

The service portal can, if 4:3 and 16:9 formats are used to an equal extent, be optimized for a format in between the two. It is then possible to have a single service portal that is satisfactory for both formats.

Designing a single service portal for both formats